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Price Tiventif'five Cents, 



' MyA^^^^^^ . 


AUSTRIA. 


YIENNA, PRAGU 


ETC. ETC. 


BY J. G. KOIIL, 


AUTHOR OF " RUSSIA AND THE RU.SSIANS." 



PRINTED FOR CAREY AND HART, 

126 CHESTNUT STREET, 

AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS AND NEWS AGENTS 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 



HARRY lORREQUER'S WORKS COMPLETE, IN LARGE TYPE, 

FOR 

PHILADELPHIA, 

Have just published a New and Uniform Edition of tlie 

COMPRISING 

CONFESSIONS OF HARRY LORREQUER. 

In One Volume, 8vo. Cheap Edition, Price 50 cents. 

" He has enabled us to pass many an hour that would otherwise have been dull, weary, and idle, in inn< 
cent mirth and jovial fellowship ; deeply interested in his wayward pilgrimage to final fortune and happines 
but delighted beyond the possibility of adequate expression with what may be termed the pathetic humour c 
his narrative." — Montreal Gazette. 

♦' We would rather be the author of this work, than of all the ' Pickwicks' and ' Nicklebys' in the worl 
It is full to overflowing of homour of a very high order; and as for incidents, it contains enough to supply stoc 
for half a score of modern novels." — United Service Gazette. 

CHARLES O'MALLEY, THE IRISH DRAGOON, 

EDITED BY HARRY LORREQUER. 

Complete in One Volume, 750 pages, 8vo. Cheap Edition, Price 50 cents. 
" We look back to the opinion we expressed when this writer made his debut, with increased satisfactioi 
from the firm conviction that he has hardly a rival in that free, manly, dashing style of sketching life, manner 
and humorous incidents, to which he has devoted himself. Charles O'Malley is, to our thinking, the clevere 
number of any periodical work, the production of a single pen, which has yet come before us. — Pickwick 
Nicklebys, Poor Jacks, «&c., all included." — United Service Gazette. 

JACK HINTON, THE GUARDSMAN. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF CHARLES O'MALLEY. 

Complete in One Volume. Price 50 cents. 

" The two greatest fiction writers of the age are Dickens and Harry Lorrequer. Their works have giv( 
birth to a new school of novelists, and to a new era in our literature." — Fife Herald. 

" We do not know a more spirited and engrossing work, and plead guilty to being among the most imp 
tient and insatiable of its devourers." — Scottish Standard. 

" This is decidedly the pleasantest book of the time." — Liverpool Courier. 

" These admirable sketches keep pace with the previous portions in vigour of diction, attraction of incidei 
and racy colloquies, sparkling with wit and humour." — Caledoiiian Mercury. 

(Xj' Carey 4- Hart also publish an edition of the above Works with Illustrations by Phiz, at $\ each volum 

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COMPLETE IN THREE LARGE OCTAVO VOLUMES 

OF 

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liorrequer," in 3 volumes, originally published at TEN DOIiliARS per copy. 



AUSTRIA. 



VIENNA, PRAGUE, 



ETC. ETC, 

4-;< J873 M 



-\ BY J. G. KOHL, 

AUTHOR OF " RUSSIA AND THE RUSSIANS.' 



A\ 



PHILADELPHIA: 

CAREY AND HART 

No. 126 CHESNUT STREET. 
1844. 



->t^' 



PEEFACE. 



The following pages consist of a portion of Mr. Kohl's 
admirable work on Austria. Should the work meet with 
the favour that the publishers confidently anticipate, it will 
be immediately followed by the remaining portion, con- 
taining Hungary, Bohemia, the Danube, &c. 



» AUSTRIA. 



BOHEMIA 



FROM DRESDEN TO TEPLITZ. 

To travel or not to travel, was once more the 
question. To wander, to stroll through the 
■world, or to remain and shoot out roots like a 
tree. Whether 'twas nobler in a man to tend 
his own little garden, or to arm himself against 
a sea of troubles, and plough his way round our 
terrestrial j)lanet1 A house, or a tenti A warm 
room, or a windy seat in a post coachl A shady 
tree, or a budless staff? One friend, or a thou- 
sand friendly faces'? 

I must own I had heard in a quiet little farm 
on the banks of the Elbe, the cackling of hens 
and the crowing of cocks; I had visited the 
peaceful chambers, and the cozy garden with 
its circling wall; had seen the contented cattle 
fattening in their stalls, and the tempter had 
said to me, "Might not all this be thine?" and 
mightst thou not find here all that thou seekest 
in the wide world, and bearest thou not in thy 
own breast a world that cannot come to a birth 
lor want of repose?"— "Ye?, if a wish could 
command repose, who would fardels bear, and 
groan and sweat beneath a load of travelling 
troubles?" I replied to my advising friend, 
■whispered many other things into his ear that 
were not intended fur the crowd, and concluded 
with these* words: "Look, my dear friend, thus 
it is that necessity makes brave men of us, and 
enterprises that seem full of great pith and mo- 
ment, with this respect lose much of the merit 
ascribed to them." So saying, I once more 
took leave of him, and stepped into the Saxon 
Postwagen that had been standing for some 
time ready harnessed in the courtyard of the 
Diligence office at Dresden. I was about to 
start for Teplitz, there to consign myself to the 
keeping of a Bohemian vehicle, by the aid of 
■which I hoped to reach the deep-rolling Danube, 
■«'here I fully intended to embark on ■a steamer 
that should convey me to Vienna. After that I 
contemplated intrusting my person to a Hunga- 
rian^ Sjfucrwagen, and alternately by land and 
by water, sometimes with the aid of a living 
steed, and sometimes by that of a many-horsed 
power of the unquiet steam-engin", to press 
forward to the confines of Turkey, and when I 
had done all this, my purpose was to return 
quietly to my native land. 

Such was my plan, but in the execution of it 
I was delayed for full five minutes, by a country- 
2 



man of the gallant Falconbridge. "A proper 
man's picture," as Portia says; i. e. an English- 
man, came rushing into the court-yard, just as 
the horses were starting. His appearance was 
striking enough. His collar, I believe, had been 
bought in Italy, his trousers in France, his cap 
in Germany, and his manners had been picked 
up everywhere. It did not rain, nevertheless 
he carried a huge umbrella to shield him 
against the sun. He was out of breath, placed 
himself right before the horses, and having 
slightly adjusted his crav^at and dusted his coat, 
he began a series of pantomimic demonstrations, 
addressed by turns to the horses, the postilion, 
and the conductor. The horses whom he had 
grasped by the bridle, were the only part of his 
audience who seemed to understand him ; for 
he spoke neither Latin, French, nor Italian, 
and not one mortal word of German. We made 
him out to be a passenger who had overstaid 
his time, and the diligence was stopped. He 
ran immediately into the office, where he paid 
the remainder of his fare, and then again, in 
mute despair, he rushed through the crowd of 
spectators, to gaze out into the street. The con- 
ductors took him by tlie arm to lead him back 
to the carriage, but he broke from them and ran 
into the street again, where he.^rood gazing to 
the right and to the left, ip ^.vklent anxiety. 
No one could guess the me.^nvug of all this, and 
in a little time we should siave lelt him alone 
with his despair, if at the critical moment a 
valet-de-place, who came panting into the yard, 
with a hatbox in his hand, had not atl'orded a 
solution to the enigma. My Englishman now 
took his place by my side, and related to me 
that he was setting out with a determination to 
visit and inspect all the provinces of the Aus- 
trian empire. He appeared to me like one 
■who had gone forth to till a field, but had forgot- 
ten his plough at home. Even in English he 
was not very talkative. "Who can converse 
with a dumb show?" as Portia says: so I found 
I had abundant time to meditate further on the 
theme with which I started — to travel or not to 
travel. 

All the charming vineyards, and all the com- 
fortable country-boxes that smiled over to us 
from the other side of the Elbe; all the cheerful 
Saxon villages of the Dresden plain; all the 
80,000 peaceful townsfolk of Dresden, whom 
we were leaving behind us— all seemed to be 



10 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



reproaching me for leaving them; and every 
time that a labourer by the roadside looked up 
at our wandering vehicle, he looked as though 
he would say to me, " Friend, stay at home, and 
earn thv bread like an honest man." Perhaps 
when Napoleon retreated over the same ground, 
after the battle of Culm, the Saxon villages may 
have spoken to him in the same strain. He 
might still be reigning in France, had he known 
belter how to stay at home. 

After passing Pirna, indeed all the way from 
Dresden to Teplitz, you pass over a succession 
of fields of battle. The War of Liberation, the 
Seven Years' War, the Thirty Years' War, and 
the Hussite War, have all contributed to make 
memorable the mountain passes of Bohemia; 
at Culm, at Pirna, at Maxen, again and again 
at Culm, up to that battle of Culm which the 
German king Lothair lost to the Bohemian, 
Sobieslav, in 1126, when Albert the Bear was 
taken prisoner by the Bohemians, much in the 
same way in which Vandamme was taken 700 
years later by the Cossacks. 

At Peterswalde, we come to the Austrian 
frontier. This frontier runs, for the most part, 
along the highest summit of the Erzgebirge; 
but, strange as it may seem on a frontier of such 
ancient standing as that between Saxony and Bo- 
hemia, there exists to this day a boundary dis- 
pute, the existence of which, by the by, was only 
recently discovered, in consequence of the sur- 
veys rendered necessary for the magnificent map 
of Saxony lately executed. The Saxon surveyors 
came to a frontier village, which they took to 
belong to their own country, but the inhabitants 
declared they were Austrians, and drove the 
strangers away. In the same way these vil- 
lagers are said constantly to have repelled the 
visit of the Austrian tax-collector, by declaring 
themselves Saxons. Upon the Saxon map the 
village has, in consequence, been marked by a 
white spot, and will continue so till the labours 
of diplomatists have determined under what 
royal wings these mountaineers are to have a 
shelter assigned them. 

The Erzgebirge must not be supposed to be a 
series of mountain pyramids placed side by side. 
It is rather a Vuge extended mound, sloping 
away to the north into Saxony, but rising ab- 
ruptly on the Bolie.iiian side. Seen from Sax- 
ony the chain presents nothing very striking*, 
but from the Bohemian side it looks like a huge 
wall girting the land. In the same way, the 
views from the summit are tame, looking towards 
Saxony, but magnificent when the eye wanders 
over the Eger and Bila valleys of Bohemia. 

" Heavens! what beautiful country is thatl" 
exclaimed one of our lady passengers, as we 
reached the summit; "only look, deep precipices 
and mountain ravines; a wide plain, with towns 
and villages scattered over it, while in the dis- 
tance again, mountains rise to close in the hori- 
zon!"— "This portion of our resplendent planet," 
we replied, " presents itself to the astronomers 
oftheinoon as a bii;'lU squaiv enclosed by a 
dark rim, and mav l>c IvImjv.u tu tliose loani-'d 
personages as the Ici^ituiy of Alpha, or the kind 
of Fsi. Perhaps they may inform their students 
that the said territory is an island, and that the 
dark frame by which it is bounded is a mass 
of light absorbing water. Here upon earth we 



call the tract Bohemia, and il we knew how to 
impart it to them we might inform the sages of 
the moon that the dark circling mass is caused 
by light absorbing forests, and by yawning ra- 
vines. No doubt, in the same way in which we 
terrestrials often talk of the man in the moon, 
do the learned there speak of the virgin of the 
earth. The square piece of surface which we 
call Bohemia, as it corfcsponds very nearly 
with the virgin's girdle, may pass for her buckle; 
and when the country, covered with clouds and 
mist, seems darker than on those days when the 
sunbeams are immediately reflected from the 
surface, the mooners perhaps say, 'The virgin's 
buckle looks dull to-day;' or, in the contrary 
case, 'The virgin has brightened up her buckle 
this morning.'" Be this as it may, upon one 
point the Bohemians may fully rely— namely, 
that the boundaries of their country' must be ap- 
parent to the very schoolboys in the moon, to 
whom the limits of Saxony, Prussia, and of 
olher merely politically-bounded countries, must 
be utterly unknown. 

The piece of Bohemia which first becomes 
visible to the enraptured eye of the traveller, 
from the heights of NoUendorf, is the valley of 
the Bila, and so lovely is the view that tliere 
presents itself, that every one who sees it for 
the first time, however he may have been pre- 
pared beforehand, will be likely to exclaim with 
our fair companion, " Heavens! what beautiful 
country is that"!" 

Along winding roads the diligence descends 
gradually into the valley, accompanied the 
whole way by a troop of children, who, in ex- 
change for raspberries and strawberries, levy a 
little frontier-tribute on the traveller, and greet 
him on his entrance into a new country with 
the pious salutation, "Blessed be Jesus Christ." 
The three eagles, whose wings upon these 
heights fluttered so fatally around the French 
legions; have erected three monuments upon 
the field of battle, and weather-beaten veterans 
are stationed there as sentinels. English travel- 
lers, on passing the place, are wont to note 
down very conscientiously how many hundred- 
weight oi' metal have gone to the composition 
of each monument. Our Englishman wrote 
among his memoranda that the Austrian was 
large and solid, the Prussian very small, and the 
Russian remarkable for its elegance. 

In Teplitz, not only the inns and public- 
houses, but even private buildings have each a 
distinguishing sign. Thus one house is called 
the Lyre, another the Angel, and a third the 
Golden Ring. It is, if not more convenient, at 
all events a much prettier and more pictur- 
esque way of marking the houses, than our fa- 
shion of numbering them, and prevails through 
the greatej- part of Bohemia, and even in some 
of the adjoining countries. 

To become well acquainted with Teplitz, one 
should endeavour to wander about tl^ place 
with one of the regular annual visitors. There 
are certain sufferers from the gout who arrive 
there at fixed seasons, and may be looked for 
as confidently as a stork at her last year's 
nest, or as certain human fixtures may be 
reckoned on in their accustomed colfee-rooms. 
Such people gradually conceive for Teplitz al- 
most as much interest as for their own homes. 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



11 



and when they arrive, can have no rest till they 
have satisfied themselves that Clary Castle 
stands where it did, and that all thfe public 
■walks are in due order. They hasten to the 
bath-rooms to receive the obsequious salute of 
each well-remembered attendant, and enter the 
glass magazines to admire the new colours and 
fashions; for every year is as certain to bring 
its new colours into the Bohemian glass manu- 
factories, as to usher in its old ones to the 
Bohemian meadows. 

The invalid who visits the baths of Teplitz 
passes the first few days at an inn; and, during 
this time, he abandons himself to the delights of 
reviewing the old scenes, till he is able to find 
a private lodging at the Three Cossacks, or at 
the Paradise, or at the Palm-tree, or at the 
Prince of Ligne. Then he calls in his phy- 
sician, aiul delivers himself over to the pre- 
scriptions of the place, rises early, and drinks 
most scrupulously his allotted portion of sul- 
phur water, which glides through his lips to the 
enchanting accompaniment of a band of music; 
he is careful not to miss the promenade at noon 
in the garden of the Castle of Clary, even though 
he should not be able to participate in its plea- 
sures otherwise than in a rolling chair; and 
eats, drinks, sleeps, and reposes, accordingly as 
his doctor directs" him, in whose hands he is 
even as a watch — wound up, regulated, and 
made to go. 

From the castle hill the view is most beauti- 
ful and comprehensive, extending over nearly 
the whole valley to the sources of the tributary 
streams. I made a pilgrimage tolhe siiiuiuit, in 
company with some Poles. In a small \'illage, 
on our way, we met with some Polish Jews, 
■who are frequently to be seen in Bohemia. 
They carried in their boxes a variety of little 
ornaments for sale among the peasants; needles, 
pins, beads, &c. They called such an assort- 
ment of merchandise Spiiulliki, a word half 
Polish and half German; and they told us they 
had been to Riga, Brody, Warsaw, and Cracow. 
They spoke Bohemian, Polish, German, and 
Russian, and were a fair sample of the jew ped- 
lars that generally wander about the Slavonian 
countries of Eastern Europe. In Russian Po- 
land, they told us, they used formerly to gain 
most money, but the government did not allow 
them to go there any longer. 

Like the whole country round Teplitz, the 
castle hill is evidently of volcanic origin. It is 
a tolerably regular cone, rising ICOO feet in 
height from the surrounding plain. A girdle of 
beautiful oaks encircles the middle, and the 
summit, an extinct crater, is crowned by the 
ruins of the castle which was destroyed by fire. 
From among the oaks may be discovered the 
most beautil'ul landscapes, charmingly framed 
by the spreading branches of the stately trees; 
but all that the pen can do to convey an idea 
of pictures such as these is idle and imperti- 
nent, and even the pencil may timidly shrink 
from the task. On fine days the hill is swarm- 
ing with visitors, who form for themselves a 
temporary settlement, in the corners, under the 
porches, and on the terraces of the ruins, and 
watch the sun as he describes his marvellous 
course, till he vanishes behind the Carlsbad 
mountains. 



The wondrous effects of the light at sunset, 
with the endless gradations of its colours, and 
all the glories of the evening we had spent to- 
gether, had excited our Poles to such a degree, 
that, as we passed through the girdle of oaks, 
the place was made to ring again with the na- 
tional songs of Jescze Puhku nezglnala (yet is 
Poland not forsaken), and Gdy na wijbizezech. 
The latter is one of the most beautiful of all the 
patriotic melodies t)f Poland. The words run 
nearly as follows: — 

" When thou seest a ship by the sea-shore, 
tost about by the storm, and cast upon a trea- 
cherous shoal, less by the fury of the waves 
than by the fault of the pilot; oh, then, deign to 
shed a tear for that poor ship, for it will remind 
thee of the fate of unhappy Poland. 

"When thou beholdest a volcano, a giant 
among mountains, pouring forth lava, and emit- 
ting smoke, while in its bosom is burning an 
eternal fire; oh, then, remember, that such is 
the love of liis country that burns in the bosom 
of the Pole." 

The Milleschauer, three thousand feet high, 
is the loftiest among the Central mountains, the 
whole of which may be seen at ease from its 
summit. These central mountains are all ex- 
tinct volcanoes, and all of a tolerably regular 
conical form. The Elbe breaks here in quick 
succession through two chains of mountains, 
the Central mountains and the Erzgebii-ge, and 
it is remarkable that just at this poiut, where 
the water forced its way through the hills, the 
violence of the fire should likewise have been 
so great. When Bohemia was still a lake, 
these central mountains must have borne some 
resemblance to the Lipari islands, a group of 
volcanoes crowded together, and surrounded by 
water. The Milleschauer is also called the 
Donnersberg, or Hill of Thunder. May not this 
name refer to a remote period, when loud de- 
tonations were yet heard within the mountain's 
womb? Are not many hills that bear the name 
of Donnersberg extinct volcanoes'! 

It is difficult to imagine a more delightful 
prospect than that from the summit of the Mil- 
leschauer. The distant blue lines that bound 
the horizon, belong on one side to the Riesen- 
gebirge, or Giant Mountams; on the other, to 
the nearest hills of the Bohemian forest, while 
towards the south the plains of central Bohemia 
lay spread out before you, so that you may yield 
to the flattering belief of having more than half 
the kingdom at your feet, and of contemplating 
at one glance, the scene of the joys and sorrows 
of several millions of human beings. You be- 
hold the vessels that dot the surface of the Elbe, 
but of vi'hose presence the dwellers by the Eger, 
whom you comprehend in the same glance, 
have no suspicion. You see the carriages that 
roll forth from the little town of Lobositz, un- 
known to those that dwell in the valley of the 
Bila. The weather was remarkably favourable 
when we reached the summit of the Mille- 
schauer, the air was clear and transparent, and 
the eye roamed unconstrained over the most 
distant objects. A few clouds indeed were fly- 
ing about, and a thunder-storm was experidmg 
its fury on a distant portion of the landscape. 
The whole dukedom of Schlan and Munzifay, 
for instance, was overcast for a while with gray 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



clouds that menaced ^vith thunder and hail. 
The fowls there were scudding with ruffled 
feathers before the storm, the dogs were creep- 
ing into their holes, and the men as they barred 
their doors, and made' their houses fast, seemed 
to say: — " Heaven be merciful to us! Is the last 
day cornel" — " Ye fools of Munzifay," thought 
we on our Olympian thrones, "be warned by 
this of the shortness of earthly sufferings!" and 
then we looked into the county of Tepiitz, and 
into the circles of Leitmeritz and Bunzlau, 
smiling in the tranquil light of sunshine, and 
enjoying themselves in the cheerfulness of the 
atmosphere. Seven thousand human beings 
dwell there upon every square mile,* and from 
every square mile seven thousand voices rise 
in praise of the beautiful weather. Without 
umbrellas they walk forth, and in uncovered 
carriages do they take their diversion! Short- 
sighted mortals that they are! Oh that they 
could but see the clouds that are gathering be- 
hind the Krkonnrski hills, as the Bohemians 
call the Giant mountains. That mischievous 
wight Rubezahlf is preparing to blow over to- 
wards them a mass of vapour that will spoil 
their diversion, by pouring down some millions 
of drops of rain. 

On the summit of the most elevated peak of 
the Donnersberg stands a wooden chair under 
a roof, said to have been erected for his own 
convenience by the late King of Prussia. Here 
he was wont to abandon himself for hours to- 
gether to the enjoyment of the glorious land- 
scape. It is a throne fit for a king, nay for a 
god, and I am surprised that the ancient Kings 
of I3oheiiiia should not have chosen this spot 
for their coronation instead of the Vissehrad, on 
the banks of the Moldau. Here on the Don- 
nersberg, within sight of the whole kingdom, 
while invested with crown and sceptre, they 
might have received the homage of all their 
subjects at once. The eye ranges to the eastern 
mountain frontier, from behind which rises the 
Bohemian sun, and follows the glorious orb in 
his course till he sinks again behind the western 
rampart of the kingdom. Here the nobles, while 
uttering the oath of allegiance, might have been 
impressed with the vastness of their fatherland, 
and the littleness of its minute parts. , As So- 
crates once said to Alcibiades, though he, like 
the Prince of Schwarzenberg, had his ninety- 
nine lordships — even so the King of Bohemia, 
before receiving the homage of his magnates, 
might have taken them each by the arm, and 
have said to them: — " I:;'ook, magnate, what you 
see before you is our common fatherland Bohe- 
mia, but that little misty point which you see 
yonder, marks the extent of dirt with the pos- 
session of which heaven has blessed you, and 
of which you are so immoderately proud. You, 
Duke of Friedland, will find your dukedom hid- 
den in the valley behind yon hill; and you, Im- 
perial Prince, by the grace of God, of Schlan 

* Whenever a mile is spnUen of in the course of the 
present work, a German mile is nridersiood. The Ger- 
man mile is «qual to about 4 3-7lh English miles, and 
conseriuenlly a German scjuare mile is equal to rather 
mure than St English square miles, or to about 13 G'lO 
acres .... 

t Kiibezahl is the name of a eoblin supposed to inhabit 
the Rlesencebirae. The legendary lore of Germany is 
full of tales, in which Kubezahl plays a part. 



and Munzifay, we must wait a little before we 
can find out your principalit}^ for a passing 
cloud conceals it for the moment. As to you, 
combative gentlemen of the Beraunerthal, there 
is your home, a small clear streak beyond the 
cloud; cut the streak up into little pieces, and 
each piece will be the territory of one of you, 
save only two of the pieces that belong to the 
high wise counciimen of Beraun and Rakonitz. 
Be advised, gentlemen, and live peaceably to- 
gether, like good neighbours, instead of cutting 
each other's throats lor a fragment of the streak. 
And now, honourable gentlemen and council- 
lors, look round upon the whole. Look at the 
spires of Raubnilz, of Lobosilz, of Trebnitz, of 
Brozan, and of Anscha; and there on those of 
Bilin, Brux, and Dux; see how cozily the smoke 
curls up from among yonder cottages, or from 
among those, or those, or those. See how life 
nestles in every corner, and how the mountains 
girdle the whole picture, and how the rivers run 
sparkling through the landscape. All this is our 
great and beautiful fatherland. The whole is 
great, the fragments trivial. Let us then stand 
faithfully and firmly for the whole, and now, 
gentlemen, come and set me my crown upon 
my head." 

Should the King of Bohemia then have had 
the wit to select for the moment of his corona- 
tion, the period of a rainbow such as we had 
the pleasure of greeting, the splendour of the 
solemnity would be complete. A group of 
clouds, that seemed to have detached itself from 
the main army which had been moving over the 
country the whole day, and that now poured 
down Its abundance close before the summit of 
the mountain, afforded us the glorious spectacle. 
The golden pearls were dropping down almost 
within reach of us, and as the sun had almost 
set, the rainbow was stretched out right above 
our heads. Gradually, however, we became 
more nearly acquainted with the damp mate- 
rials whereof the bow was constructed, and,. 
moistened by the liquid seven-coloured gems, 
we were glad to find a shelter among the mossy 
huts of the Donnersberg, that form about as cu- 
rious an hotel as a traveller might wish to see» 
A number of small, low huts, built of stone and 
draperied with moss, form a close circle around 
a small open space. In the centre is a kind of 
orchestra for I3ohemian musicians, who play 
every day during the Tepiitz season. Some of 
these mossy huts are refreshment rooms, others 
are fitted up as sleeping apartments, and in one 
there is even a museum to illustrate the natural 
curiosities of the mountain. Each door is deco- 
rated by some metrical inscription, from the 
pen of the poetical host, whose daughter pre- 
sents to each guest on his departure a neat little 
nosegay composed of flowers of the m.ountain. 

It had rained heavily while we were sheltered 
in the m^ossy cabinets on the mountain, and 
when we issued forth on otir downward journey, 
our guides told us the peasants near Trzeblitz 
would be certain to find great quantities of 
garnets; not that the garnets came down from 
heaven in the rain, but because, after a rain, 
they were more easily detected when turned up 
by the plough. Trzeblitz is a village at the foot 
of the Central Mountains, where garnets are not 
merely found thus by accident, but are likewise 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



13 



carefullj' dug for. "The corn, however, will 
have suffered from the rain," added my guide. 
— " Why sol" — "Because it fell through a rain- 
bow. The rain -that falls through a rainbow 
always breeds a mildew, and if it falls *on a 
newly sown field, it burns the corn away." — 
"Why this is downright witchcraft," said I. — 
"Ay, ay," resumed the guide, " we have witches, 
and devils enough here. On yonder hill, where 
you see the ruins, there's a cave called the 
Devil's Cave, that is fall of them." I had to 
translate this to my French companion, who 
philosophically exclaimed, " Partouf on park 
plus des demons que des anges. En France c^est la 
meme ch/ise." And to say truth, it is strange, that 
throughout Christian Europe, so many beauti- 
ful and picturesque objects should be pointed 
out to us as Devil's Caves and Devil's Bridges, 
Devil's Rocks and Devil's Leaps. Why does 
not fancy sometimes attribute the workmanship 
to angels] The Greeks would at least have 
talked to us of Bacchus' Caves and Diana's 
Bridges; and how much more pleasing and 
cheerful are the images called forth by such 
names, than by constant allusions to a dirty, 
ugly, black, lauky-tailed devil! And then, how 
abominable a superstition must that be, which 
announces woe to the land over which the lovely 
Iris has swept with her many-coloured train! 
From what perverse imagination can such a 
notion have sprung? Is it that there is some- 
thing peculiarly gloomy in our nortiiern bloodT 
Does not the JBible itself teach us to hail the 
rainbow as a heavenly messenger of peace? 

Amid such discourse, my Frenchman and I 
had lost sight of our party, and suddenly found 
ourselves alone. He became ail at once afraid 
he should have to pass the night on the moun- 
tain, and commenced a series of lamentations 
on the shortness of German beds, and the scanty 
dimensions of German quilts; on tlie bad teeth 
of the German ladies, and on the incapacity of 
the Germans to prepare so simple an article of 
food as a lait au poulet, which insipid decoction, 
it seems, is to be had nowhere, save in the 
"Capital of Civilization." In proportion as the 
night grew darker, he became more and more 
eloquent on German suj^rstitions, and on the 
absurd tales of ghosts and goblins, in which the 
people believed so firmly. I consoled my com- 
panion, however, by assuring him I would lead 
him the right way; nor did we miss it, but 
arrived safely at the little village where we had 
left our carriage prior to our ascent, and where 
Tve now found the rest of our party awaiting our 
arrival. 

The following moVning was again bright and 
cheerful, and we omitted not to avail ourselves 
of it for another excursion to tlie environs of 
Teplitz. In addition to that of an esteemed 
friend, I had the company of two Bohemians 
from Prague, who told us much of the national 
efforts now making in Bohemia, of the learned 
societies at Prague, and of the patriotic balls 
that had been given there during the preced' ig 
winter, when the ball rooms were each time 
decorated with white and red, the national co- 
lours of Bohemia. No German, nothing hut 
Bohemian, was allowed to be spoken at these 
balls, and the guests were saluted, on their en- 
trance, by the stewards, in the Bohemian dialect, 



which, not many j^ears ago, was universally 
looked upon as a mere peasant's patois. The 
public announcement of the balls was to have 
been also made in Bohemian; but to this the 
police refused their consent, permitting, how- 
ever, by way of compromise, that the balls 
should be announced at once in both languages; 
a plan verj' generally adopted for other an- 
nouncements, besides those of patriotic balls. 

Our first visit was to the convent of Osseg, 
one of the most ancient in Bohemia, several 
portions of the building dating back as far as 
the year 11 9G. In the passages and corridors 
of convents, you may generally meet with a 
number of pictures, illustrative of the history of 
the religious order to which the convent belongs. 
Sometimes a pedigree of all the convents of the 
order, sometimes pictures of miracles performed 
by former monks and abbots, and sometimes 
portraits of the popes that have been members 
of the order. Here at Osseg, accordingly, I 
made the acquaintance of the six popes who 
had belonged to the Cistertian order. 

Among the large paintings in this monastery, 
there were three that particularly interested us. 
One represented a learned Frenchman, of the 
name of Alanus, sitting as a shepherd among 
his sheep, in a solitary part of the wood. This 
worthy Parisian, the quintessence of all learning 
and science, had discovered that it was only in 
the simplest occupations that a man enjoyed 
real happiness, and impressed with this belief, 
he had laid aside his doctor's cap and gown, to 
take up the crook of a philosophical keepe>i- of 
sheep. The second represented the Abbot Erro 
of Armentaria, wandering away into the Ibrest, 
to reflect upon what appeared to him an unin- 
teUigible verse in the Bible, that "before the 
Lord years pass away like moments, and centu- 
ries like thoughts." Coming into the wood, 
a bird rises, and so charms the abbot with its 
song, that he follows deeper and deeper into the 
recesses of the forest. When the bird ceases, 
the abbot, regretting the shortness of the melody, 
turns again homeward, but is surprised to find 
his convent in ruins, and a new one erected by 
its side. The monks, however, who dwell there, 
are all strangers; and,oninquirj% he learns that 
he is now in the year 1367, whereas it was in 
1 167 that he started on his walk, so that he has 
been listening to a bird for 200 years. Satisfied 
now of the truth of holy writ, he prays God 
to take him up into Heaven. On a third picture 
was another Cistertian of the name of Daniel, 
who studied and read so indefatigably in his 
solitude, that the flames of his holy zeal issued 
forth at his fingers' ends, so that he could hold 
them, at night, like so many little tallow candles 
before his book. This allegory is a beautiful 
one; for no doubt there is within the human 
breast a self-illuminating power, that enables 
the possessor to read the mystrt-ies of God 
without the aid of a teacher; but in the way the 
painter has placed his subject before us, it loses 
all dignity, and looks rather as if the artist had 
designed to turn the matter into ridicule. 

In the picture galler}', in the upper rooms of 
the convent, we were much interested by two 
portraits of Luther and Melancthon. They are 
painted on wood, and marked with the initial of 
Albrecht Diirer. Luther gave them to his sister, 



14 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



a nun in a LusAtian convent, who remained 
truejo Rome to her end. The Lusatian nunnery 
was, and stili is, a dependency of Osseg, and 
thus it was that the pictures came hither. 

In the beautiful parlc of the Cistertians we en- 
joyed magnificent views of the Bila valley, and, 
on going to the carp ponds in the garden, a few 
crumbs of bread brought hundreds of lusty 
carp to the surface in a minute. The monk 
who showed us over the place, told us these 
were only the small reservoirs, to furnish the 
daily supply; the large fishponds, he said, were 
fai-ther away. He told us also, that the convent 
possessed twenty-four villages, besides a sepa- 
rate estate of six villages for the abbot's private 
use. As soon as we pass the Erzgebirge we 
find things of which the name only is known 
farther north. With us these wealthy almsgiv- 
ing convents are mere things of romance, but 
here in Bohemia you see them and feel them. 
The present abbot of Osse^;-, Mr. 8alesius Krii- 
ger, if spoken of as a highly distinguished and 
amiable man. We were sorry not to be able 
to make any nearer acquaintance with him, 
than was afforded us by his portrait, painted by 
Professor Vogel. 

The convent of Osseg lies immediately at the 
foot of the Erzgebirge, whence you drive down 
into the plain to the Castle of Waldstein, and 
the small dependent town of Dux. The artistical 
treasures of this castle are of the highest interest, 
and may be enjoyed with the greater satisfaction, 
as they are not arranged with any view to sys- 
tem or completeness like the collections of a 
German university. The paintings decorate the 
customary sitting rooms of the owner of the 
castle, and sofas and ottomans seem to indicate 
the leisure and comfort with which the pictorial 
representations are daily enjoyed. The museum 
of natural history is chiefly illustrative of the 
natural peculiarities of Bohemia. The salle 
d'armes is connected with the castle, and the 
library adjoins the owner's cabinet. A beautiful 
picture in most of our public collections has to 
me an abandoned and orphanlike look, while 
the statues and antiques are crowded together 
without harmony or connection. In a private 
mansion, on the contrary, every thing seems to 
have found its own place, and to harmonize 
with the building, with the men that dwell there, 
and with the scenes by which they are sur- 
rounded. 

It is to the portraits of the celebrated Duke of 
Friedland, by Van Dyk, that our attention is natu- 
rally first directed, and should even the host of 
Netschers, and Dows, and Rubenses, by which 
they are surrounded, be confounded in the tra- 
veller's mind with the Netschers, Dows, and Ru- 
benses, which he has had elsewhere to pass in 
review, yet never, I am satisfied, wiU the features 
of Wallenstein be effaced from his recollection 
— features which he will nowhere be able to 
look upon as here. There are two portraits 
here of the duke. In the one he is painted as a 
young man; and in the other, as a gray-headed 
warrior. The comparison between the two 
pictures is highly interesting. There the youth 
stands before you, with his light curly hair, of 
which a lock falls coquettishly upon the fore- 
head, while a small neat moustache is carefully 
turned up at the end, with an evident view to 



effect. The face is a lengthened oval; the nose 
is handsomely formed, and the eyes, beautifully 
expressive, are, if I remember rightly, blue. 
An z^jf§ii cloudless sky forms the back gi'ound. 
The same noble features, but hardened and 
stern, mark the second portrait. The smooth 
skin is furrowed by innumerable lines that seem' 
to hear testimony to violent passions and che- 
quered fortunes. The hair of the head has 
grown thin, while the moustache, having lost 
its graceful curl, is changed into a wilderness 
of bristles, many of them standing stiilly out, 
like those with which Retzsch has often Icnown 
how to give such expressive effect to his outlines. 
The old weather-beaten countenance looks an- 
grily and imperiously down upon us, like the 
wrinkled bark of a sturdy old oak. The sword 
is half drawn, as about to give the signal for 
battle. Gloomy scattered clouds are sweeping 
over the back ground remnants of a recent 
storm, or tokens of fresh levies that are to ex- 
pend their electricity in new battles. The azure 
sky of peace that smiled upon the youth never 
returned for the diike, as it has often done for 
the aged and retiring warrior when his battles 
are over ; it was among the gloomy agitations 
of his career that Wallenstein fell. A portion 
of his skull is presei-ved at the Castle of Dux, 
and has been duly examined by phrenologists. 
The protuberances discovered there have been 
carefully numbered and ticketed. Among them 
may be seen No. 6, Firmness; No. 7, Cunning; 
No. 18, Boldness; No. 19, Reflection; No. 20, 
Vanit}'; No. 21, Pride and Love of Glor3\ The 
partizan with which he was stabbed is likewise 
shown, and his embroidered collar, stained with 
the blood that flowed from the deadly wound. 
Also a letter written by his own hand, com- 
manding the execution of some citizens who had 
served against the emperor. 

The picture of his first wife hangs by the side 
of that of the youthful duke. The expression of 
her face is beautiful. So much so, that the be- 
holder finds it difficult to tear himself from the 
painting. It is quite a type of Bohemian beauty, 
and as such ought to be studied and got by 
heart by evcy ethnologist. As he advances 
farther into the country, he will constantly meet 
with similar large dark eyes, a similar oval 
head, black hair, and melancholy cast of coun- 
tenance. 

Among the family portraits, our guide called 
upon us to notice some scenes in the Spanish 
War of Sections, as he very innocently charac- 
terized the War of Succession. A remarkably 
pretty picture was pointed out by him as that of 
the Princess of Something, who, he said, ha^ 
" lost herself very much" since it was painted, 
in saying which, he simply meant to inform us, 
in his Bohemian-German, that Time had not 
failed to leave his traces upon the lady's counte- 
nance. As we were taking leave, we were ad- 
vised to seek another opportunity of payiog our 
respects to the present owner of the castle, our 
guide assuring us that the Count was very 
" forward" to strangers. 



FROM TEPLITZ TO PRAGUE. 

On leaving Teplitz you have to pass the Mit- 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



15 



telgebirge, or Central Moimtains, A Bohemian 
bird takes tliree minutes to do this, a Bohemian 
coachman three hours. From these hills }n)U 
descend into the marshy country, in which the 
Elbe and the Eger unite their waters. Even as 
the waters mingle here, so also do the elements 
of population; for there are here three famous 
Bohemian towns lying close together; Lobositz, 
Leitmerilz, and Theresienstadt. The first, 
through which the traveller passes, is a comfort- 
less city of Jews; the second, seen only at a dis- 
tance, has the appearance of a thriving manu- 
facturing place; the f.hird, examined at greater 
leisure, is the most important fortress of Bo- 
hemia, and the usual breakfasting station for 
those who start from Teplitz at an early hour. 

The building of Tlieresienstadt was com- 
pleted, not by Maria Theresa, but by Joseph, in 
honour of her memory. It is a strong fortress, 
surrounded by marshes, and still a virgin, thoiiglx 
more than sixty years old. She was courted by 
Napoleon in 1813, and his bridal envoy Van- 
damme was, it must be admitted, received within 
the coy lady's M'alls. It was not, however, as a 
conqueror, but simply as a prisoner of war. 
The ancient maiden's wardrobe must have cost 
a pretty penny in her time, and her maintenance 
must still be expensive, for every thing about 
her is of the smartest and the best; and so in- 
deed It ought to be, for at lier girdjifche carries 
the key of the whole of northern Jronemia, and 
the suitor that conquers her scruples, may have 
all her land with her. Her collection of pearls 
is of inestimable value. We saw them in huge 
piles in the public squares, where they looked 
for all the world li^e so many bombs and can- 
non-balls. 

Among the prisoners or convicts at Theresien- 
stadt, I remarked the considerate care that had 
been taken to lighten the weight of their fetters. 
The thick iron rings which hung loose on the 
leg, were supported by a broad band of leather 
strapped round the thigh, so that the iron did not 
press with its full weight upon the flesh. The 
arrangement is one that deserves to be imitated, 
•wherever it is felt that a criminal is laden with 
chains for security's sake, and not merely for 
the infliction of incessant torture. There are 
cases enough still in Europe, where no one in- 
quires whether the fetters, resting on the ancles, 
eat their way into the flesh or not. 

The valley of the Eger is the most beautiful 
part of Bohemia, and also the part best known 
to the rest of Europe. The population is chiefly 
German, and our proverb respecting Bohemian 
villages has no application here, where there 
are many villages which no one must be igno- 
rant of if he would pass for a travelled man. 
These are the villages of the circles of Leitme- 
rilz, Saatz, and Elnbogen, bordering on Saxony, 
and only projecting at their southern extremities 
into the country of the genuine Bohemians, or 
StockbOhmen. The whole of Bohemia is divided 
into sixteen circles, of which three border on 
Saxony, three on Silesia, three on Bavaria, and 
three on Moravia. Three are central, and bor- 
der on nobody, and one, the circle of Budweis, 
borders on Austria. It is only the three central 
circles, the core of the kingdom, that are Sfuck- 
bo/imisch, or thoroughly Boliemian, in all the 
Other circles a large portion of the population 



is German. The most populous are the three 
that border on Silesia. In that of Koenigingratz 
there are as many as 6900 inhabitants to the 
(German) square mile. The least populous is 
that of Budweis, where there are only 2800 in- 
habitants to the square mile. The circles in 
the valley of the Eger have from 4000 to 5000. 

The dJlTerent parts of Bohemia difler quite as 
much in the quality as in the quantity of their 
population. In the north and north-east, the 
Saxon and Silesian cirles, the people are in- 
dustrious, and the country is full of manufacto- 
ries and commercial establishments of every 
kind. In the south and south-west there is more 
of grazing and tillage. How great the diflerence 
must be, is shown by the difierence in the rate 
of wages. In the north, in the circle of Leit- 
meritz, a common labourer earns from five to 
seven ^rosc/ien a day; in the south, in the circle 
of Tabor, only from two to four gro.scke?!.* These 
were the current wages when I was there, -and 
people assured me they might be looked on as a 
fair average of ordinary times. 

My coachman was a genuine Bohemian. As 
we were passing through the gate of Theresien- 
stadt, he told me that we should find no more 
Germans between that and Prague. "At Koe- 
nigingratz, however, you come to the Germans 
again, and so you do at Budweis and Pilsen. 
All round our country the Germans are every- 
where peeping over the border." Hereupon I 
began to turn it over in my own mind, that this 
land belonged to the German Confederation, 
and then I began to speculate upon what the 
people themselves might think of the said con- 
federation. I found it impossible, however, in 
any language, to make the people understand 
wliat I meant, and I believe there are very few 
of them that have any notion of what sort of 
thing the Germanic Confederation may be, of 
which they, nevertheless, form a part. Proba- 
bly not one Bohemian in a hundred has ever 
heard the confederation spoken of. I once saw 
a Bohemian most immoderately angry on read- 
ing in a German book this sentence: " Prague 
is one of the handsomest cities in Germany." 

I need not attempt a description of the Bohe- 
mian villages through which we passed after 
leaving Theresienstadt, for though we Germans 
profess to know so little about them,f yet we 
are all familiar with the lamentations of those 
who have made a nearer acquaintance with 
them. I will not, however, repeat these melan- 
choly ditties about dirt and disorder, for I know 
of places in Germanj', ay of large districts, 
where the population live in quite as much dirt 
as the Bohemians do. What attracted my at- 
tention most in these villages were the charac- 
teristic little booths that we saw erected in every 
market-place, with theirGerman-Slavonic wares 
and inscriptions. A booth of this sort is called 
a Kramek, from the German word Kram, and in 
it are usually displayed for sale a pile or two of 
tasteless pears, a plate of sour cherries, and 
some wheaten rolls of various f<irms, among 
which the bancluor and the rokhlitshek seem to 
be most popular. A few pots of flowers, by 



* A gToackSs ralher mnre ihan an Eniligh ppnny. 

t The Gpriiians have a say ins: " Diiss ist viir so nn- 
hekannl wie die bbhmisrhen Dor/er." (1 kuow no mure 
abuuL ii ilian I do of ihe Bohemian villages ) 



16 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



way of decoration, are seldom wanting, and in 
the dark background may usually be seen the 
guardian spirit of the place, in the shape of a 
little old man sitting silently, like a contempla- 
tive philosopher, waiting for customers. 

Passing through a dreary and badly culti- 
vated country, in comparison with the neigh- 
bourhood of Leitmeritz, we arrived at Weltrns, 
situated on the Moldau. the chief river of Bohe- 
mia. Melnik, at the mouth of the Moldau, we 
saw only at a distance. Melnik is celebrated 
for its wine and its hops, but the latter part of 
its celebrity is probably of the earlier date, for 
mel is the Bohemian word for hops, and the 
name of JJelnik may be translated into the Ciljj 
of Hops. The Emperor Charles IV. (the Bohe- 
mians call him Charles I.) is said to have first 
planted the vine here, but this is scarcely credi- 
ble, for in that case the vine must have been 
naturalized on the Rhine and Danube, a thou- 
sand years before it was known on the Elbe. 
The red wine of Melnik is the best of all the 
Elbe wines, but all the wines of the Elbe, in 
quality as well as in quantity, stand to those of 
the Rhine and Danube in about the relation of 
one to ten. 

Charles IV. ushered not only Bacchus but 
the Muses also into Bohemia, for he it was that 
planted the ancient university in Prague, where 
the venerable tree still flourishes. " Under him," 
say the Bohemian historians, "the Tshekhs 
laid aside their rude manners. They had among 
them the most learned scholars and the greatest 
statesmen, and were, in a word, the predomi- 
nant nation of Europe, so much so, that to have 
been born a Bohemian was everywhere held to 
be an honour." If this was so, times have 
altered strangely since then. For, be it preju- 
dice or not, few people nowadays will make it 
matter of boast, unless perhaps in Austria, that 
they are genuine Bohemians; not only in France 
and England, but even in many parts of Ger- 
many, the name is held synonymous with that 
of gipsy, and even now, our peasants when they 
hear the gipsy dialect spoken, are very apt to 
turn away with disgust, and tell you, "the crea- 
tures are talking Bohemian." 

The lordship of V^eltrus belongs to the Count 
of Chotek, a member of whose family occupies 
at present the highest post in Bohemia. There 
was a bridge here formerly, but many years 
ago it was destroyed by a flood, since when the 
good people appear to have contented them- 
selves with a ferry or '• flying bridge," made 
fast by a cable fixed to one of the ruined piles 
of the former stationary one. This transition 
from standing to flying is any thing but " pro- 
gressive," and it is really a marvel that on so 
frequented a road no measure should yet have 
been taken to repair the defect. 

It is no shortening of the road to cross the 
Moldau atWeltrus; lint, on the contrary, a great 
round. It so Ii:i|.|i(mi>--, imwever, that more than 
one-fourth of all ihc toads to Prague, iacluding 
that from Dresden, unite at the north-eastern 
gate, at which there enter more travellers and 
merchandise, than at all the other seven gates 
taken together. The reason is, that Prague is 
of easier access at this than at any other point, 
and the consequence has been that the quarter 
of the town which has been most modernized 



and improved of late years, is that which lies in 
the vicinity of the Porzizer Thor, or north- 
eastern gate. 

Attended, accordingly, by all the persons and 
things that happened to stream together at that 
point, exactly at 7 p. m., on the 23d of Jul}', 
1841, from northern and eastern Bohemia, from 
Saxony, Prussia, and Scandinavia, from Si- 
beria, Poland, Russia, .and Asia, did we, pre- 
cisely at the time stated, hold our entry into 
Prague New Town, which having done, and 
having duly placed ourselves under the protec- 
tion of the Burgomaster of the Old Town, we 
consigned ourselves for that night to the wel- 
come repose of bed. 



THE VISSEHRAD, 

Every part of Prague is still verdant and 
blooming with the ruins and monuments of re- 
mote countries. The streets, the churches, and 
the burying grounds are full of eloquent appeals 
to the history of the land and the people. Pa- 
laces and countless steeples are trj^ing to over- 
top each other in their zeal to talk to you of 
times gone by. Even on the walls of their 
taverns, the townsmen may read the names of 
the first dukes of Bohemia, and thus familiarize 
themselves(||tith their ancient annals. On the 
outside of one large house of public entertain- 
ment, near the Vissehrad, on the place %^here 
formerly the dukes were interred, there may yet 
be seen six grotesque fresco paintings of the six 
first Bohemian dukes, with their names very 
legibly mscribed: — Przemislus, — Nezamislus, — 
Mnata, — Vogen, — Vratislav, — Venzislaus. The 
features of these redoubtable potentates have 
even been repaired and beautified within the 
last few years. Where, I would ask now, is 
there a place in all Germany, in which the an- 
cient history of the land is made palpable to 
hand and eye as here? Where is there a town 
where so much has been done for German, as 
here for Tshekhian history] Where the Ger- 
mans do as much for their mighty emperors, as 
is here done for petty dukes'? 

Bohemia is a piece of land wonderfully se- 
parated by nature from the rest of the world. 
The magic circle which surrounds it, consists 
of stupendous hieroglyphics, traced by the hands 
of the primeval Titans, and from this mighty 
wreath depart a multitude of concentrating rays 
that join together in a vast central knot. These 
are the streams that flow from the east, the 
west, and the south, the life-sustaining arteries 
of the land. In the middle of this magic circle 
rise the hills of Prague, where every great event 
by which the country has been agitated has set 
its mark, either in the shape of new edifices 
and enduring monuments, or of gloomy ruins 
and wide-spread desolation. The central point 
of a country sharply cut ofi'from the rest of the 
M'orld, and witness constantly to new modifica- 
tions of its political lile, Prague has become 
full of ruins and palaces, that will secure to the 
city an enduring interest for centuries to come; 
and while the hills are singing sweetly to us 
the traditions of past ages, let it not be supposed 
that the whispers of futurity are not likewise 
murmuring mysteriously around them. 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



17 



The hill first spoken of in Bohemian chroni- 
cles, and upon which resided the first dukes of 
Bohemia, is the Vissehrad, whence the Pro- 
phetess Libussa announced to Prague her fu- 
ture glory, declaring that the city would one day 
become a sun among cities. The old chroni- 
clers hence call their city often the daughter of 
Libussa, exclaiming in their rapture: O ter 
magna triurbs, triturbs eringens, o orbin caput, ct 
decus Boliemiae.' Pulchrae filia pulcJirixyr L'l- 
hussae.' Such were the words with which the 
venerable Hammerschmidt apostrophized the 
glorious city on her thousandth anniversary, in 
1723, in his Prodromus Gloriae Pragcnat, the city 
of which Charley IV. was so enamoured, that 
he declared her Iwrtem deliciaruiu, in qua reges 
delictarentur. 

The Vissehrad is a hill, abrupt on every side, 
but flat on the summit, presenting a plateau of 
some extent, convenient to build on, and easy 
of defence. The Hradshin is indeed rflore ele- 
vated, and has a more picturesque situation, 
but is commanded by other hills near it, and of- 
fered, on many accounts, fewer inducements to 
the early rulers than the Vissehrad, to choose 
it as their place of residence. The steepest side 
of the Vissehrad is towards the river Moldau, 
which seems to be compressed between the hill 
and the opposite meadows, rushing over its bed 
with greater rapidity here than in any other part 
of its course. Here, probably, were the rapids 
or poragi, to which the city is supposed to have 
been indebted for its name. If we may believe 
what the historians and chroniclers of Bohemia 
relate to us of the former condition of the Vis- 
sehrad, the pomp and magnificence that once 
dwelt there offer a strange contrast to the dust 
and rubbish that have usurped their place. 
This, once the centre of a bustling city, is now 
the most remote point of the town; and the most 
wretched quarters are grouped about the hum- 
bled Vissehrad, whose chief glories now live only 
in the imagination of the Bohemian antiquary. 

On the northern side of this Acropolis — for 
such the Vissehrad may well be called — Hows 
the little brook Botitz, now a dirty piece of 
water, but memorable in the songs of ancient 
bards, and witness to numberless bold deeds 
and hard-fought battles. On the extreme point 
of the little peninsula formed by the Botitz and 
Moldau, whence the finest view may be ob- 
tained of Prague, of the valley of the Moldau, 
and of its enclosing the hills, there we may su^> 
pose the bard to have stood, as he composed 
the favourite old national ditty, Kde dnmnf mug, 
of which the following is nearly a literal trans- 
latioiu 

Whpro is my house'! whpre is my homej 
Sueitnis aiiiiirifl: ttie meadows crpf ping, 
BiooUs fnim rimk to rocli are leapiu-r,' 
Kv^ryivliere. bloom sprin? and Uowers, 
M'iihin lliis p.iradlse of ours; 
TliPre. 'lis lliere, the bfauleous land! 
Botiemia, my falherlaud! 

Where is my house? where is my home? 
Know'ei thou the c.otiniry loved o1 God. 
AVIiere roble souls in well shaped fmns residp? 
Where llie free glance cri.shes the f leiiian's pridn? 
There will thou find of Tshekhs the honour'd race, 
Among the Tshekhs be, ay, my dwelling place. 

For my own part I was twice on the Acropolis 
of Prague. Once with an honoured friend, a 



professor at the nniversitj'-, whose antiquarian 
lore enabled W/i to point out to me every frag- 
ment of the ruins, to which any historical asso- 
ciations attached. The second time I was there 
in the company of a couple of humble originals, 
who, equally learned in their way, found means, 
by the mingled simplicity and zeal of their nar- 
rative, to breathe life into every bush and stone 
about the place. These were old Joseph Tshak, 
who has been for 52 years attached to the ser- 
vice of the church on the Vissehrad, and his 
daughter, herself past the meridian of life. I 
had made a kind of acquaintance with this pair 
of living curiosities, on the occasion of my first 
visit, when I promised them if they would stop 
at home the following Sunday I would visit them 
again. Now, though I must own tliat I derived 
myself quite as much pleasure from the society 
of my esteemed and learned friend, yet I am 
inclined to believe that my reader may prefer 
seeing me in the company of old Joseph and 
his daughter, and, to say truth, they were cer- 
tainly the most original guides by whom it has 
ever been my fate to be attended. 

Joseph Tshak was originally pulksant, i. e, 
bell-ringer, to the church on the Vissehrad. la 
course of time he obtained preferment to some 
more exalted office on the ecclesiastical estab- 
lishment, and since then, somewhat about the 
close of the last century, he has been invested, 
as a mark of his present dignitv, with a red 
coat, now faded and almost as gray as his once 
auburn locks. His daughter, since her mother's 
death, has succeeded to the appointment of 
laundress to the eight venerable d^f^ons of the 
church, in addition to which she washes, 
starches, and irons the lace and linen of the 
altar, and of all the "blessed saints" that dwell 
within the holy edifice. The father and daugh- 
ter live together in a little house perched upon 
the summit of the hill, where they have ample 
elbow-room, dwelling in complete solitude on a 
spot which, 500 years ago, was animated by the 
bustle of a populous city. Here, amid relics of 
the olden time, the daughter M-as horn and has 
grown old; while the lather has for more than 
half a century been the attendant cicerone of all 
the great and little people, from emperors and 
kings dfiwnward, who in the meantime have 
honoured the Vissehrad with their visits. The 
ruins of the place are the only objects with 
which the worthy pair have ever occupied 
themselves, and with these they have so com- 
pletely identified themselves, that they have be- 
corrie in their own persons almost as interesting 
to a stranger, as the scenes among which they 
dwell. The "Bohemian Chronicle" of Hajek, 
Hammerschmidt's "Glory of Prague," and a 
few other hooks of the same character, they 
may almost be said to have learned by heart, 
In addition to the learning thus acquired, they 
have cai^ght up and treasured in their minds 
every little tradition or anccdcte about the Vis- 
sehrad that they happen to have heard from the 
priests of the ciiurch, or from the strangers that 
visit it, and all this they have embellished and 
connected here and there by the helping hand 
of their own imagination. In short, they have 
pursued the course usually followed by our own 
professors of history, and have retailed their 
medley tales to all the numerous listeners they 



18 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



havt had around them durin^the last half- 
century. Their lectures have ^t indeed been 
taken down in shorthand, yet have their in- 
structions extended far and wide, and not only 
the citizens of Prague, but simples and gentles 
from the fartliest lands have carried away with 
them the tales and legends of old Tshak, and 
would be ready on occasion to stake their own 
honour on the old sexton's veracity. 

" Gracious me, your honour, and there you 
are indeed!" exclaimed Joseph's daughter, as I 
presented m3'self at their little dwelling on the 
promised Sunday. The day happened to be 
the festival of St. Anne, and all Prague was 
making merry in the taverns, at the public dan- 
cing-houses, and on the islands of the Moldau. 
The Vissehrad, as was its wont, lay solitary and 
forgotten. Upon its naked and desolate brow, 
sported a moist breeze, and scattered clouds 
were sweeping over it, attended by sundry flights 
of ravens, who were .winging their flight towards 
the city; for even they have abandoned the old 
hill, and fixed their quarters in less elevated re- 
gions. 

" And there you are indeed, sir ! Father and 
I were just sitting together, and this being St. 
Anne's day, we were thinking of my mother, 
whose name was also Anne. I was weeping a 
tear or two, and looking out of the window. 
There father's eye caught the steeple of St. Ja- 
cob's, and said, ' Thou shalt go down to St. 
Jacob's to-morrow, and have a mass read for 
Mother, Anne.' ' Ay,' said I, and then I thought 
to myself, ' Mother is dead; father and she lived 
forty-five y#lrs up here together; Father, too, is 
old now. Friends we have none in the world. 
If he dies, thou'lt be alone.' So, thought I, I'll 
have a prayer read for father, too, and I'll pray 
God to spare him to me for many years. Not 
true, your honoui", 'twill be well so? And look, 
just as I was thinking so, you come and climb 
up all this weary way to us. Gracious! you 
must be tired; pray sit down." 

I did so with pleasure, for I was struck by 
tlie little domestic arrangements of the venera- 
ble sexton. The furniture was all of great an- 
tiquity, and the walls were hung with maps and 
pictures, one of which represented the Visseh- 
rad, as it may be supposed to have looked in 
the days of its glory, when it must have had 
somewhat of the same appearance as the Krem- 
lin at Moscow. A bible was lying on the table, 
and I expressed my pleasure at seeing the book 
there. "Ay, ay," said the daughter, "we set 
great store by the book. A Jew once offered us 
two florins for it, but father said he would not 
give it him. Henry, my brother's son, has chil- 
dren, they may use it one day, when we can 
read it no more. Is it not so, fatherl" "'Ay, 
a)%" answered the old man, "I wouldn't part 
with the book." I commended them for their 
good resolution, and we proceeded, all three, to 
go over the curiosities of the Vissehrad, which 
I longed to see, not only in its own form, but as 
modified through the medium of the fancy of 
my guides. 

" There is but little left of what was once 
here," began the old man, " and of that little there 
is much of which we know the meaning no 
longer. Even old Hammerschmidt, in his time, 
could only tell us, that this was supposed to be, 



and that was said to be, and we are not likely 
to know as much now as was known then; but 
we will show your honour nothing but what is 
certain. First of all, then, we come to the church 
itself, formerly consecrated to St. Vitus, and 
afterwards to St. Peter. The warriors that broke 
down the rest of the brickwork, had some re- 
spect for God's house, I suppose, and so it has 
remained standing somewhat longer." 

The trembling hands of the old man, as the 
keys clattered in his grasp, worked away for a 
^e^^ moments at the crazy gates, before we ob- 
tained access to the interior of the church. The 
place has been sacred to religion from a very 
remote antiquity. Before th? introduction of 
Christendom, there stood on the same spot a 
temple dedicated to Svantovid, the god of war 
of the Slavonians. The emblem of this heathen 
divinity was a cock, and this bird was likewise 
the chosen bird of St. Vitus. This similarity of 
taste, and perhaps the similarity of their names, 
(Svantovid and Sanct Vit) may have facilitated 
the transfer of the property from the heathen to 
the saint The church was built by Vratislav, 
the first king of Bohemia, and was finished in 
1088. It was afterwards rebuilt, having been 
destroyed by the Hussites, who seem to have 
dealt even more hardly by the sacred edifice 
than the devil himself, for his Satanic majest}', 
in his rage, contented himself with kiiocking a 
hole in the roof, which it was long found impos- 
sible to lepair. The memorable tale was told 
me it) the following words, by my conductress: 

" Once upon a time a poor man went into the 
forest. There he met a smart, jovial-looking 
huntsman; at least so he supposed, but in truth 
it was no huntsman, but the devil in disguise. 
Now the huntsman spoke to the sorrowful man, 
and said, ' Art poor, old boy?' — ' Ay, miserably 
poor, sir, and full of care,' replied the other — 
'How many children hast thou?' — 'Six, noble 
sir,' answered the poor man — ' Give me for ever 
that child of .thine that thou hast never seen, and 
I'll give thee thy fill of money.' — ' Willingly, 
sir,' was the silly father's reply. 'Then come, 
and we'll sign and seal on the bargain' — The old 
man did so, and received countless heaps of 
money. When he got home, however, to his 
own house, to his surprise he found he had 
seven children, for his wife had in the mean 
time brought the seventh into the world. Here- 
upon, the father began to feel very uncomfort- 
able, and to suspect that the devil had talked 
him out of his child. In his anxiety, he called 
his new-born son Peter, and dedicated him to 
the apostle; praying St. Peter to take the boy 
under his protection, and shield him against 
the devil's arts. Peter, who appeared to the old 
man in a dream, promised to do what he was 
asked, provided the boy Avere brought up to the 
church; so, of course, the lad was given to God's 
service, that he might be a priest when he grew 
up. Peter turned out a good, pious, and learned 
young man. ■ When he was twenty-four years 
old, arid had been installed as a priest at the 
church on the Vissehrad, the devil came one 
day to put in his claim to his reverence; but 
the holy apostle St. Peter interfered, and de- 
clared the deed which the devil produced Avas a 
forgery. The devil and the saint came to high 
words at this; while the poor priest, frightened 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



19 



out of his wits, ran into the church, and betook 
himself to reading the mass. Now, as they 
could no way come to an understanding, St 
Peter, by way of a compromise, proposed a new 
bargain. 'Do you fly to Rome,' said he to the 
devil, ' and bring me one of the twelve columns 
of St. Peter's church, and if you're back with it 
before my priest has read to the end of the mass, 
he shall be yours; but else, mine.' The devil, 
who thought he should have plenty of time, ac- 
cepted the proposal with pleasure; and in a kw 
seconds, Peter saw him flying up full speed with 
one of the columns. The devil would have 
won, there's no doubt,if St. Peter had not quick- 
ly gone to meet him, and begun to belabour him 
with a horsewhip. The devil, in his fright, 
dropped the huge pillar, which fell plump to the 
bottom of the Mediterranean sea. He lost but 
little time in diving for it, and bringing it up 
again; but he lost quite enough, for when he 
arrived at the church, the priest had just said 
his I/.a missa est, and so his mass was at an end. 
St. Peter laughed heartily; and the devil was so 
vexed, that in his rage, he flung down the big 
colutnn, which went through the roof of the 
church, and fell upon the floor, where it was 
broken into three pieces. Many attempts M-ere 
made to repair the hole in the roof, but they 
could never make the work hold, for it always 
fell in, and so at last they gave it up; and there 
the hole remained for many hundred years, 
leaving a free way for rain and wind. The Em- 
peror Joseph, however, insisted upon having 
the roof repaired, so they carved the two keys 
of St. Peter in the centre stone of the vault, and 
since then the work has held." 

The cross-keys still remain, but I am inclined 
to think it was the priests and not the emperor, 
who ordered them to be placed there, and that 
they did so to save appearances. If they are 
now asked how the masonry comes to hold, 
they have their answer ready, attributing every 
thing to the virtue of Peter's keys. 

As long as the hole coiginued in the roof, the 
fragments of the broken column remained on 
the floor of the church; but, according to the 
old sexton's account, " the Emperor Joseph said, 
people should pray to God in the church, and 
not gossip about the devil and his wicked works. 
Those were his very words," continued the old 
man, " for I heard them from his majestj^'s own 
mouth, as I was showing him about the place, 
when he was here and looked closely at every 
thing. And for my own part, I don't know that 
it would be a serious sin, if a man should not 
happen to believe the story." 

Since Joseph's time, a large painting repre- 
senting St. Peter horse-whipping the Pnnce of 
Darkness, and the Mediterranean rolling its 
waves beneath them, has, I am sorry to say, 
found its way back into the church. The broken 
column, in three fragments, lies on the grass in 
front of the church. " The stone," said my old 
guide's daughter, " is put together out of seven 
sorts of stones. One is very precious, erne ver)' 
hard, and one stinks detestably. When his 
majesty the blessed Emperor Francis was here, 
and my fether told him the story, his majesty 
Francis said, ' the stone stinks, I suppose the 
devil has left something sticking to it." Down 
below, )-ou may see the stone is somewhat worn 



away, for that's where father knocks ofl^ bits 
for strangers to carry away as a remembrance. 
The soldiers also grind bits of the stone into 
powder, and have found it good for all sorts of 
complaints." 

In addition to the painted and belaboured 
devil, I found a little miniature of his Satanic 
majesty, neatly cut in wood, and led by a chain, 
M'hich was held by a St. Procopius, likewise 
carved in wood. Two celebrated men of this 
name figure in the history of Bohemia; one a 
distinguished leader of the Hussites, the other 
the first herald of Christianity in the country. 
The latter of these was the saint, and wherever 
he is represented in a Bohemian church, he 
never fails to have a few devils in chains. Like 
s(^ many greyhounds in a leash. He was a great 
exorciser of devils, and there is still a hole in the 
mountains near Pr^ue, into which he fastened 
a vast number of them, where they fly about by 
hundreds to the present day. 

There is in this church another relic of great 
celebrity in Bohemian Christendom, namely the 
stone coffin of St. Longinus. This man, accord- 
ing to the legend, was a Roman centurion, and 
was present at the Crucifixion. He was blind, 
but some of our Saviour's blood having fallen 
upon him, he recovered his sight, and immedi- 
ately began praising the Redeemer, crying out, 
"This is Christ the Anointed!" The soldiers 
seized him and stoned him, and put him into a 
stone coflin, which they threw into the sea. The 
coffin, however, would not sink, but floated on 
the surface till it arrived at some Christian city, 
and in due time found its way to Bohemia. The 
Hussites threw him again into the water, namely, 
into the river Moldau, and for a long time no- 
body knew where to look for the saint. One 
day, however, when the Hussite disturbances 
were at an end, some fishermen saw a flame 
burning on the surface of the water. They tried 
4.0 extinguish the flame, but they could not, and 
it always continued precisely at the same spot. 
A miracle was immediately presumed to be on 
the eve of birtu. An ecclesiastical commission 
was appointed, and lo, before their eyes, the 
stone coflin of St. Longinus I'ose up from among 
the waves, and was carried back with due ho- 
nours to the Vissehrad. 

" Who knows whether it's all quite true or 
not?" observed my talkative conductress; "but 
one thing's certain. An arm of St. Longinus 
lies still in the coflin. When their majesties the 
blessed Emperor Francis, the Russian emperor 
x\lexander, and the Prussian king Frederick 
William, were up here, they were all alone with 
father and me. Only one soldier-like servant 
had they with tliem. Well, they made us show 
them this coflin most particularly, and we had 
to take two candlesticks from the altar, that they 
might see the better. The Russian emperor's 
majesty was most anxious of all to know about 
it, and he crept i^as far as he could, to feel after 
the saint's arm,^d when the emperor's majesty 
came out again, he was all covered with cob- 
webs and dust. ' Oh, your majesty,' said I, 
you've ma.de yourself quite dirty,' and with that 
I knocked the dust off" his back with my hand. 
' That'll do, child, that'll do,' says he to me, and 
I was quite surprised to hear him speak such 
good German." 



20 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



In the year 1187 there lived in Bohemia a 
duke of the name of Frederick, who involved 
himself into a quarrel with the clergy, in con- 
sequence of having applied to his own use the 
revenues of tlie village of Czernovitz, then the 
property of some convent or chapter. The 
priests imposed heavy penance upon him for 
this offence, and one of them seems to have had 
the audacity to subject the duke to a scourging. 
Gregory VII., who kept a German emperor wait- 
ing like a beggar in a courtyard, had not yet 
been dead a hundred years. Tiie memory of 
tliis scourging, the priests sought to preserve by 
a picture, in which the duke is represented re- 
ceiving punishment from the hand of St. Peter. 
This picture, which still hangs in the church, 
bears the inscription, Flagellatus Fredericus, Dux 
Bohe/niae, a S. Petro oh Pagum nomine Czerno- 
vitz abalicnaium, 1 187. Fr^erick, who died in 
1190, was reconciled to the clergy before his 
death, for, it seems, he authorized the canons of 
the church on the Vissehrad, to adopt the said 
flagellation as their coat of arms, and the reve- 
rend gentlemen still preserve it, representing 
the saint belabouring the duke with a cat-o'- 
nine-tails of most awful dimensions. 

" Wlien we showed this picture to his majesty 
Joseph the Second," m}' old sexton continued, 
— "I believe it was in '84, and the emperor was 
up here with Laudon, Lascy, and other great 
gentlemen, I was a young pullesant then, and 
had to stand modestly aside, but I saw and heard 
every thing for all that. The fine Hungarian 
guard was drawn up on the Vissehrad, and the 
carriages and servants waited below. Now 
when we showed his majesty the picture, he 
looked vexed, and shook his head, saying, ' It 
was not civil for Peter to scourge a prince in 
that way, no, it Avas very uncivil.' Then he 
looked down for a moment, as if he was consi- 
dering to himself, and after that he said, ' but 
the thing is old, so it may stop there.' Laudoii, 
was standing hj, and smiled." 

Another object that interested me in the 
church, was the tomb of a Utra:;uist or Calix- 
tine. The ruling idea with those people was 
the wine-cup. They bore it as an emblem on 
their banners, and after death had it carved on 
their tombs. Before these wild zealots drove 
Sigismund's troops from the Vissehrad, no less 
than thirteen churches stood there.- Only one 
now remains, and the fragment of what was 
once the wall of another, and which seemed to 
me like a few odd lines of a lost poem. " Oh! 
it must have been sad work here," said my old 
sexton; "the Hussites had no mercy at all, but 
brought dogs and eagles with them, to fight 
against Christian men." 

Behind the church lies a newly-erected ar- 
senal, and several barracks for soldiers, for the 
Vissehrad still preserves its character as a kind 
of citadel. On the edge of the rock, that over- 
hangs the Moldau, may be traced some ruined 
walls of great antiquity. Tiftse, according to 
tradition, belonged to the fortress of Libussa, 
and one part of the ruin is still pointed out as 
having been Libussa's bath-room. "But all 
that is mere vulgar talk," resumed my con- 
ductress, "for nothing is known for certain. 
That Queen Libussa did once live up here in a 
fine palace, among these rocks and shrubs, — 



oh, that's certain enough. She was a heathen, 
to be sure, but she was Queen of Bohemia, and 
a very good woman for all that. She had two 
sisters. Kasha and Theka. Kasha helped her 
to govern the land, but Theka was an apothe- 
cary, and knew all about plants, and the nobles 
came from far and wide to be cured by her. 
She also used to give medicines to the sick 
peasants, and she could prophecy, and give good 
advice to her sisters. Of course things changed 
when Libussa married Przemysl, who as king 
had a right to have his own way. Now, Li- 
bussa had a waiting-woman called Vlasta, a 
very beautiful maiden; and when the queen was 
dead, Vlasta thought Przemysl would marr>' Aer, 
and make her Queen of Bohemia. He did not 
do so, however, which so enraged Vlasta, that 
she vowed vengeance, and resolved to make 
herself Queen of Bohemia without his aid. She 
went over the Moldau, — there was a bridge here 
then, — and she set up her kingdom right oppo- 
site the Vissehrad. She got together four hun- 
dred Bohemian maids and wives, who were at 
feud with their husbands and lovers. There, 
beyond the meadow, in the corner between the 
hills, your honour may still see the spot where 
Vlasta's castle stood. It was called Divin, and 
thence she used to sally with her maidens, and 
wage a cruel war against all the Bohemian men. 
She cut the right thumb off of all the boys that 
fell into her hands, that they might not be able 
to draw a bow, and from all girls she cut off the 
right breast, that it might not hinder their 
archery. She might not herself have been able 
to do what she did, but she had a sorceress in 
her service, who used to say to her, 'My gentle 
lady, when you go into battle, I will fly on before 
you. Observe my flight and my signals. I'll 
show you the ambush cf your enemies, and ad- 
vise you what you must do.' So, when she 
sallied forth, the old witch always flew before 
her, and all the Amazons rushed on, crying, 
' Yaya, yaya! baba, baba!' Not true, father, that 
was their cry]" "A^ ay, child, that was their 
cry." — "And then they lured the knights into 
their power, and cat oil' their noses and ears, or 
threw them from the rocks, and captured all 
their castles hereabout. Up tliere, on that high 
hill, lay the castle of the Knight Modol, a true 
friend of Przemysl's. That they captured too. 
Vlasta, with her own hand, cut Modol's head 
off, and then (mad wench that she was) she got 
upon the wall, and blew her trumpet, that 
Przemysl might hear her triumph here on the 
Vissehrad. She had her silver armour on, and 
her beautiful hair fell dovv^n to her elbows, and 
in her left hand she carried her banner. When 
Przemysl saw her and heard her trumpet, I 
warrant you he was vexed enough to think he 
had not made her his wife at once, and spared 
all this turmoil. He made one more trial, how- 
ever, and sent out his general Prostirad, who 
went over with a countless number of knights, 
and took back Modol's castle, and killed Vlasta, 
and brought back her beautiful round head. 
The rest of her women fled to Divin Castle, and 
defended themselves for a while, but they were 
all taken at last, and all their heads were cut off. 
Not true, fatherl" — "Ay, girl, all their heads 
were cut off." 
Amid these and many other legends of tlie 



KOH'LS AUSTRIA. 



21 



same kind, evening crept on, and I could no 
longer distinguish the distant objects to which 
my talkative conductress directed my attention. 
Her eloquence and animation invested her in 
the sober twilight, almost with the air of an an- 
cient sibyl, or Druid prophetess, nor did her flow 
of words cease when I prepared to take my de- 
paruue. On the contrary, still conversing of 
the antiquities of the place, she accompanied 
me down the hill to the French Gale, where the 
countrywomen and the Devi Slovaiski (Slavo- 
nian maidens) were entering heavily laden with 
vegetables and other provisions for tlie market, 
at which they meditated to display their wares 
at an early hour on the following morning. For 
more than a thousand years has such been the 
accustomed evening-scene at that gate, and lor 
a thousand years perhaps have the same old 
Tsliekhian ditties been nightly sung by the fair 
rustics that have meanwhile provided for the 
pantries of the townspeople. 



THE METROPOLITAN CHURCH ON THE 
HRADSHIN. 

Even in the time of the last dnkes, much of 
the glory of the Vissehrad was transferred to 
the rival hill, the Hradshin, which became the 
residence of the sovereign in time of peace, 
while the Vissehrad was only an occasional re- 
treat in sunimer, or when the city was pressed 
by an enemy. At present, much of the Visse- 
hrad, that was once coveretl with houses, has 
been converted into arable land, or pasturage 
for cattle, while at the foot of the hill dwell the 
most wretched portion of the population of 
Prague. "They are poorer even than those 
behind the Hradshin," said a Prague friend to 
me one day. Thus to each of the castle crags 
has poverty clung, to shame the luxury of wealth 
by the contrast of misery. 

High upon the Hradshin stands the glorious 
cathedral, the metropolitan church of Prague, 
dedicated to St. Vitus, and which, during the 
wars by which Bohemia has successivjely been 
desolated, has alternately suffered from the sa- 
crilegious violations of Hussites, Catholics, and 
Protestants, Swedes, Germans, and Hungarians. 
The Hussites, on one occasion, stripped the 
church of nearly every thing in the shape of or- 
nament. The Swedes, who, towards the close 
of the Thirty Years' War, made themselves 
masters of the Hradshin by stratagem, plundered 
the church to such a degree, that they were able 
to send whole shiploads of valuables down the 
Elbe to Stockholm, where they may still be seen 
among the public collections. Frederick the 
Great, too, when he besieged Prague, in 1757, 
seems to have set his heart on the destruction 
of the cathedral, against which the fire of his 
artillery was pecuharly directed. What his 
motive was, it would be difficult to say. He 
could scarcely think that the garrison of 50,000 
men would surrender to him, for the sake of 
saving the cathedral. It could not be zeal for 
Protestantism that impelled Frederick to vow 
the destruction of an ancieiit Catholic church, 
without regard to its beauty, its antiquity, and 
the numberless objects of art which it contained. 
I should like to know whether Frederick, in any 



of his works, has attempted to justify himself 
for this barbarous treatment of the Hradshin 
church, or whether any one has ever cited him 
before the tribunal of public opinion on account 
of it. The impartial Bohemian historian, Pelzel, 
gives a very detailed enumeration of all the balls, 
bombs, and shells, that were hurled against this 
admirable specimen of ancient architecture, by 
the merciless order of Frederick. On the .'Jth of 
June the building served as a target for 537 
bombs, 989 cannon-balls, and 17 carcasses, of 
which, however, it must not be supposed, that 
all, or indeed any thing like half of them, hit 
the mark they were fired at. On the 6th, 7th, 
8th, and 9th, the town was complimented with 
7144 bombs, 14,821 balls, and 111 carcasses, of 
which the majority were aimed at the cathedral. 
During those four days the building was thirty 
times on fire, and each lime it was saved from 
entire destruction by the vigilance and exertions 
of the canon, John Kaiser. The roof was per- 
forated by no less than 215 balls, and when, after 
the cannonade, the church was cleared of the 
rubbish that had meanwhile accumulated there, 
no less th*i 770 balls were collected from dif- 
ferent parts of the edifice. Napoleon, when he 
entered Moscow, sent a guard to protect the 
children in the great Foundling Hospital. Why- 
did not Frederick, when he fired ihis first gua 
against Prague, grant a similar protection to the 
cathedral on the Hradshin, by ordering his ar- 
tillerymen rather to fire on any object than that? 
Perhaps it was fortunate for Frederick that he 
did not succeed in entering the city. He, the 
friend and patron of the arts, would have grieved 
in very bitterness of soul, had he witnessed the 
destruction his own artillery had eflecled. The 
Gothic ornaments cast down, the graceful 
colnmns shattered, and the beautiful statues 
mutilated in every imaginable way. 

Scarcely one of the many splendid tombs re- 
mained uninjured. Neither the beautiful marble 
monument, executed by Kolin of Nuremberg, 
and erected in 1589, by Rudolph II., to the me- 
mor}' of Maximilian II., Ferdinand I., and Anne, 
his wife; nor the jenerable statues, stretched 
on their sarcopha^lPof the old Bohemian dukes 
Spitignev and Brzetislav; nor the chapel of the 
tombs of the archbishops; nor the other chapel 
that contains the monuments of twenty-four of 
the noblest families of Bohemia; indeed the 
monument of Vratislaus von Baren stein, the 
Chancellor of Maximilian II., is almost the only 
one that escaped unscathed. 

Few churches in Germany surpass this cathe- 
dral in beauty, richness, and in the interest of 
its historical associations. There is none to 
which it seems to bear more afiinity than to the 
metropolitan church of Cracow, in which re- 
poses the dust of all the Polish kings. In both 
may be traced a similarity of architecture, and 
a simdarity of fortunes. It is astonishing how 
much there is about each to remind one of the 
other. Even the legend of Nepomuk has its 
companion at Cracow, so closely respmbling it 
in all its details, that one cannot help wondering 
at the occurrence at places so remote from each 
other, of two series of events so perfectly alike. 

Nothing is there that a stranger in Bohemia 
is doomed to have more frequently related to 
him than the history of St. Nepomuk, and next 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



in importance and frequency of repetition come 
the adventures of the two imperial counsellors, 
Slavata and Martinitz, to whom it happened, in 
1618, to be one day tossed out of a window. 
These two narratives may literally be said to 
persecute a stranger from the day of his arrival 
till that of his departure. However well you 
may have prepared yourself by historical studies 
with a knowledge of all the details of the Thirty 
Years' War, whose commencement, as your 
professors at Bonn or Gottingen will have told 
you, is to be dated from the day on which the 
two above-named personages were tumbled upon 
the dunghill under the Ilradshin; yet rest assur- 
ed that in the first diligence you travel in, there 
will be some learned gentleman or other who 
will find or make an occasion to tell the story 
over again for your especial benefit. And by 
the time your learned gentleman has got to the 
end of his first story, it "will go hard, but at the 
next bridge you cross there will be a chapel, or 
an image dedicated to St. Nepomucene, and, if 
so, you may rest equally assured that you will 
have related to you, with all its accompanying 
incidents, the whole legend of the sjiint, which, 
it is odds but you have heard and forgotten 
again sundry times before you set foot on Bo- 
hemian ground. By the time the story is at an 
end, you are probably at the next bridge, where, 
of course, your attention is called to another 
effigy of the bridge-protecting saint, when your 
charitable informant will be likely to open again 
with "There, look there, sir; there you have the 
holy Nepomuk again; he is the same as the one 
I was telling you of, whom King Venzeslaus, 
&c.," and how far the et ccetera may extend will 
depend on your patience under the infliction. 
Well, m due time the hills of Prague present 
themselves to your view, the Hradshin towering 
proudly a,bove the rest. Immediately your tra- 
velling companion will open again upon you 
with "There, look there, sir; there you may see 
the castle from the windows of which the two 
imperial counsellors, Slavata and Martinitz, &c." 
— The next morning you are tempted to walk 
abroad, but if you come ta the Prague bridge, 
beware how you stop to lo«atfive golden stars 
that are erected there. If you neglect my cau- 
tion, rely upon it your quality of stranger will 
be discovered, and some kind self-elected cice- 
rone will approach and tell you, "This, sir, is 
the very spot fi"om which St. Nepomuk was 
thrown into the water. He was a pious man, 
but King Venzeslaus, &c." Animated, no doubt, 
by this time, with a salutary dread of the saint, 
you probably cut your interlocutor short, by 
praying him not to inflict upon you a legend 
which you have learned by heart during the 
few days you have been in the countrJ^ You 
fly to a neighbouring coffee-house, the \Wndows 
of which, to your sorrow, look upon the Hrad- 
shin. You order a cup of bouillon perhaps, 
and while you sit sipping it, your host comes 
simpenng up to you. In your ungiiarded inno- 
cence you may allow some such question to 
escape you, as "What's the news?" If so, you 
have sealed your fate. "Your honour ivere 
looking out of the window. Have your honour 
already had the condescension to go to the top 
of the hilll But you have from here a very 
good view of the two windows — look, your 



honour, there they are, at which many years ago 
a very remarkable event occurred." — "What, 
some romantic love-storyl" — "No, sir; from 
those windows it was that the two counsellors 
of the Emperor Matthias — their names were 

Slavata and Martinitz " "Oh, heavens!" 

you exclaim. Your very bouillon turns to bit- 
terness, and you snatch up hat and stick, and 
run to St. Vitus's chuich, in the hope that if any 
volunteer informant take you in hand again, he 
may make the patron of the edifice the topic of 
his discourse. Idle hope! Of St. Vitus no one 
deems it necessary to say a word, but one of 
the attendants of the church will be sure to 
come up to you, with a face all radiant with 
the hope of a douceur, and thus his oration will 
begin: "The most remarkable object in our 
church, is this rich monument of silver, which 
contains no less than twenty-seven hundred- 
weight of that metal. It was erected in honour 
of St. Nepomuk, whom the Emperor Venzeslaus, 
&c." My poor stranger! this is one of the dis- 
comforts of travel that thou must not hope to 
escape, and the sanctity of the place forbids 
thee the relief of a good set oath. Nay, wouldst 
thou even save thyself by sudden flight, the 
chances are that thy retreat is cut off by some 
venerable priest, who takes up the stor>^ at the 
point that thy humbler attendant had just reach- 
ed. In that case, patience is thy only resource. 
Listen with resignation, and thou hast a chance 
that the story will come all the sooner to an end. 
So, now having prepared thee for the infliction, 
hear and attend. 

Nepomuk, or more properly, Johanko von Ne- 
pomuk, was born about the middle of the four- 
teenth century, in the little Bohemian town of 
Nepomuk. At his birth, it is said, bright rays 
of glory were seen to shine around his mother's 
house. He became a preacher in the ancient 
city of Prague, where his fame spread so ra- 
piclly, that he was raised to the ofiice of almoner 
to the king, and became the queen's confessor. 
Now the king (Venzeslaus IV., the celebrated 
German emperor, the son of Charles IV., who 
had also in his time been King of Bohemia and 
Emperor of Germany), — the king, I say, was 
desirous of knowing what the queen, who had 
often manifested great dejection of spirits, might 
have confided to her confessor. Venzeslaus 
wished to know whether she made his own rude 
behaviour the subject of complaint, or whether 
perhaps her melancholy were occasioned by a 
secret love-aftair. Johanko, however, could 
never be prevailed on to betray a syllable of 
what he had learned in the confessional. Some- 
time afterward it so chanced that there was 
brought up to the royal table a very fine capon, 
but which, on being carved, was found to be very 
much underdone. The king was hereupon in 
such a rage that he ordered the cook to be spit- 
ted alive and roasted to death. Nepomuk did 
not fail to rate his majesty roundly for so atro- 
cious' an act of barbarism, but the holy man 
took nothing by his motion but a few days' soli- 
tary confinement, where he would probably 
have been permitted to indulge for some time 
longer in his pious meditations, had not the 
king still hoped to draw from him some of 
the queen's secrets. Nepomuk remained firm, 
though he appears to have had some foreboding 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



23 



of what the consequence would be, for he pro- 
phesied one day that he would shortly die a vio- 
lent death, and so saying took an affectionate 
leave of his friends. The following morning, 
as he was passing by the castle, the king called 
him in, and renewed his former solicitations. 
Johanko was inflexible, whereupon the king 
had him seized, bound hand and foot, and had 
him thrown that very evening from the bridge 
into the Moldau. The king thought nobody 
would have knowTi any thing about the matter; 
but there he was mistaken, for not only were 
bright rays of glory seen to shine over the spot 
where the body lay, but for three whole days 
the bed of the river was dry, no water flowing 
over it. Miracles without number A\'ere per- 
formed at the saint's grave, and people observed 
that if any man happened to express a doubt of 
the holy man's beatitude, or to step slightingly 
or scornfully upon his tomb, the day never 
passed over without some disgrace or calamity 
to the sceptic. In due time the saint was beati- 
fied by Pope Clement XI., and canonized by 
Benedict XIII. 

Since then, the veneration for St. Nepomucene 
has spread with marvellous rapidity through Bo- 
hemia, Moravia, and a part of Poland and Aus- 
tria. In all these countries he is esteemed the 
patron saint of bridges, and the usual oraison 
addressed to him by hir. devotees is this: " O 
holy St. Nepomucene, grant that no such mis- 
fortune befall us on this bridge as once befell 
thee." 

By the side of the silver monument of the 
saint, over which sundry silver angels are seen 
to hover, there hangs a golden lamp of immense 
value. This lamp has been stolen on three 
several occasions, and now, to protect this and 
the other valuables of the church, a large fierce 
dog is nightly shut up there as a guard to the 
gems and relics of the holy place. It is well 
that the Turks but seldom visit the Hradshin, 
or this dog in charge of a churchful of saints 
would be added to the already formidable cata- 
logue of atrocities laid to the charge of the 
Christians. So vmclean is this animal in the eyes 
of a Mahometan, that he would greatly prefer to 
have a whole legion of devils shut up in his 
mosque. 

With the varying versions that have obtained 
currency of the saint's adventures, I will not 
now detain the reader, that I may the sooner 
have done with the other great national bore of 
Bohemia, which, as he is now accompanying 
me through the country, he is bound to" endure, 
as I have done many a time before him. So 
here goes for Slavata and Martinitz, and if we 
are to have the story, we could have it nowhere 
more opportunely ihMt in this very church, in 
which we may at th€* same time admire the 
monument erected to the memory of Counseller 
Martinitz himself. Allans/ Courage/ 

Frightened by the daily increasing spread of 
Protestantism in Bohemia, a Catholic nobleman 
and a Catholic abbot had found means, in 16 IS, 
to sluit up and destroy two newly-erected Pro- 
testant churches, alleging that they did so by 
order of the Emperor Matthias. All the Pro- 
testants and Utraquists of Bohemia, among 
whom wevQ many of the first men in the coun- 
try, were greatly excited, and held meetings, at 



which it was logically demonstrated that such 
treatment was in direct violation of the royal 
Letters of Grace tltat had been granted them. 
A deputation was sent to Vienna to remon- 
strate. The Emperor, meanwhile, had taken 
serious oflence at the stormy meetings of the 
Protestants and Utraquists, to whom he sent a 
menacing epistle, which the states of the king- 
dom were summoned to the Hradshin to hear 
read. They assembled, listened to the foimi- 
dable threats of the emperor, and promised to 
return an answer on the following day. They 
assembled again, accordingly, at the time ap- 
pointed, attended by bodies of armed men, M-hen 
they found the royal governors, Slavata, Mar- 
tinitz, Adam von Sternberg, and Diepold voa 
Iiobkowitz, waiting to receive them. Of these 
four men, the two last were generally popular; 
but the two first, bigoted Catholics, and tyranni- 
cal rulers, were universally detested, and there 
were many among the states who were of opi- 
nion, that religious freedom could never be 
firmly established in Bohemia, so long as those 
men continued in power, and that therefore the 
best thing they could do, would be to get rid of 
them as soon as possible. Some opposed these 
violent counsels, but the majority applauded 
them, and crowded from the Green Chaxhber, 
where they had been consulting together, into 
the Government Hall, where they addressed 
bitter reproaches to the governors, for attempt- 
ing to deprive the Utraquists of their Letters of 
Grace. The Oberdburggraf, Adam von Stern- 
b(•^^^ addressed the tumultuous assembly in a 
cdjiriliatory tone, and warned them against the 
ciiiiimission of any act of violence. Kolon von 
Fels thereupon stepped forward, and said that 
they meant no harm to the Oberstburggraf, nor 
to his Lordship of Lobkowitz, with v/hom they 
were verj' well contented, but -they were in no 
Avay satisfied with Messrs. Slavata and Mar- 
tinitz, who were always seeking occasion to op- 
press the Utraquists.* Venzeslaus von Rapowa 
exclaimed, that the best thing they could da, 
would be to throw them out of the window, ac- 
cording to the good old Bohemian fashion {po 
sfarolshesku). Some of the party now went up 
to Sternberg and Lobkowitz, took them by the 



* To si^me of our English readers it may not be super- 
fluous 1(1 explain thai the UiranuislsorCalixlines received 
their name in consequence of iheir demand thai the calix 
or wine-cup should be given U) laymen as well as priesia 
in the coinuiunioii. Their <lHiiiaii(la were complied with 
by the Council of Basil in 1433, and after their victory at 
Bolimipchbrod, in 1-134, over the FmperorSigismund,lhey 
obtained liberty uf conscience, and «fier the Refirnjr.iion 
manifested on various occasions their sympathy for the 
Protestants. Their refusal to serve asainsilhe Protestants 
in the Smalkaldic war, drew upon them, at first, severe 
persecutions, but after 1556, Ferdinand I , who was not ill- 
disposed towards them, allowed them to share iu the ad- 
vantages conceded to his evancelieal subjects. Blaxi- 
milian II eranied to the Uiraquisls a complete freedom of 
relizious exercise. Under Rudolph II.. their situation was 
less favourable, and they had c(uisi(|prable difficultv in ob- 
taining from him the Al(tJexUi!sbn'i/, or Letter of Grace, 
alluded to above, which w;is cruited on the 9th of July, 
1009, and by which the Buhnniau confession, handrd in 
coujoinily by the Uiraqui-sis. llie Bohemian brethren, and 
theEvanaelicals, w.u-; pnbl'cly recognised, and their eccle- 
siastical ordinances, by which their schools and churches 
were regulated, ami by virtue id' which they had iheirown 
Consislorium al Pr.iiiue, were ronfirmed Tim repeated 
violations of the MoJestnU-bri,/ by Mauhias, led to the 
tumultuous scenes ai the Hradshin, which are described 
in the text, an<l which are ieuerally looked on as forming 
the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War. — TV. 



24 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



arm, and led them civilly out of the room. 
Slavata and Martinitz began to be seriously 
frightened, made great proffestations of their in- 
nocence, and demanded, if they had done any 
thing wrong, that they might be allowed a fair 
trial. The incensed feelings of the assembly 
could not, however, be appeased. William von 
Lobkowitz stepped up to Martinitz, and seized 
him by both his hands. This may be said to have 
been the revolutionary act of the Bohemian in- 
surrection. Could William of Lobkowitz have 
foreseen the unspeakable misery that was about 
to overtake his country, he would probably have 
shrunk back and have cried, "I will not be the 
man to raise the first stone to that frightful ava- 
lanche." Not that it can be shown that the 
horrors of the Thirty Years' War would have 
been averted if William of Lobkowitz had kept 
his hands off" Martinitz, or if the Calixtine States 
had been more moderate, and had tried to gain 
their ends by fair means, for great events are 
like streams fed by hundreds of sources, and the 
historian who argues that if this or that incident 
had not occurred, some great political develop- 
ment would not have followed, is like a certain 
Austrian, who fancied if he could stop the 
source of the Danube with his foot, he should 
be able to prevent the Danube itself from reach- 
ing Vienna. 

Be this, however, as it may, William of Lob- 
kowitz did not stop to make any such reflections. 
He seized Martinitz by both his hands. Four 
other nobles lifted the trembling governor from 
the ground, bore him to the nearest window, and 
without ceremony, pitched him out. It is said, 
that the assembly stood for several moments in 
dead silence, terrified apparently by what they 
had themselves done. A similar interval of 
silence is said to have occurred in the Roman 
Capitol, after the- conspirators had struck Csesar 
to the ground. 

The first to interrupt this silence was the 
Count of Thurn. " Gentlemen," he exclaimed, 
" ther*e's another of them," pointing at the same 
time to Slavata; Avho was immediately seized, 
and dealt with in the same way as his colleague. 
Master Philip Platter, the private secretary, was 
also ejected in the same unceremonious way as 
his masters. No record is left us of what was 
said after the outrage, by those who remained 
in the room; nor how they looked at one ano- 
ther. They soon appear to have found the air 
of the place too close for them. In a little while 
we see them, particularly the Count of Thurn, 
riding down into the city, to appease the fears 
of the people, whom they told to be under no 
•uneasiness, for that the entire responsibility of 
what had been done, would rest upon those who 
had done it. It was not till the third day after 
the scene of violence at the Hradshin, that the 
states met again. They then entered into a co- 
venant, and elected thirty men, who, on the re- 
signation of the royal governors, were to take 
upon themselves the administration of public 
atfairs. The Bohemian revolution was now pro- 
claimed, that was to terminate, only two years 
later, by a counter-revolution, terrible in its con- 
sequences, and carried through with a cruel 
consistency. It was the last time that the 
Bohemians can be said to have manifested a 
consciousness of their old Tshekhian political 



usages, for never since then have they again 
had an opportunity of exercising the po sia- 
rotshesku. 

Not the least remarkable part of this little po- 
litical drama was the fact, that not one of the 
three gentlemen, who so unwillingly showed 
their agility, suffered any serious inconvenience 
from the compulsory leap, though the window 
through which they made their exit, was at least 
sixty feet from the ground. Master Philip was 
the first to get upon his legs again; whence it 
may be inferred, that the occupation of a secre- 
tary tends less to the promotion of obesity than 
that of a royal governor; and the inference will 
generally be found to apply to the secretaries 
and governors of other countries as well as to 
those of Bohemia. Platter, as soon as he had 
scrambled out of the castle-ditch, into which he 
had fallen, ran as fast as he could into Vienna, 
where he told the emperor what had taken place. 
How happy Platter must have felt, to have thus 
the first telling of a story, in the repetition of 
which so many thousands continue, even to 
this day, to take such unspeakable delight! 

Martinitz and Slavata found some kind Sama- 
ritans in the street, Avho helped them into the 
house of the Chancellor Zdenik von Lobkowitz, 
where they found succour and protection. Count 
Thurn, indeed, at the head of a riotous multi- 
tude, appeared before the house, and demanded 
the delivery of the tM^o obnoxious governors; 
but the lady of the mansion, Polyxena von Lob- 
kowitz, pacified the count with fair words, and 
assured him that both her guests were lying in 
bed in a miserable condition. Slavata had in- 
deed a wound on his head, that obliged him to 
remain her guest for some time longer; but 
Martinitz was able to leave the city in disguise* 
He went to Munich, where he died about six 
years afterwards. 

I trust the reader will not have forgotten, 
while we have been thus discoursing of tales of 
the olden time, that we are still in the metro- 
politan church of the Hradshin, where we have 
a multitude of curiosities to pass in review. In 
the chapel of Venzeslaus I was curious to know 
the precise spot where the Bohemian regalia 
were preserved. My guide told me he dared 
not give me the required information, the place 
where they were kept being a profound secret. 
The entrance, he added, was by an iron door 
secured by three separate locks, to each of 
which there was a separate key, and these three 
keys were committed to the keeping of three of 
the first officers of state. I pressed him not the 
less to let me into the secret; telling him that I 
took especial delight in knowing myself to be in 
the vicinity of any object of historical interest, 
because I felt within m^elf a particular sus- 
ceptibility for the electrff)dng impressions ema- 
nating from such objects. This, I added, was 
particularly the case with respect to cro-ums 
and sceptres, in whose poetical atmosphere I 
loved to bathe myself^and of whose influence, I 
felt assured, I should become conscious, even 
through the intervening impediment of a Avail. 
Moreover, I told him, no crown could have more 
interest in my eyes than one that had been worn 
by so many Bohemian kings and German em- 
perors, a crown for whose sake so many a 
bloody battle had been fought, a crown which 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



25 



Joseph II. had carried away with him to Vienna, 
and which Frederick of the Palatinate (the win- 
ter king, as he is called in Bohemia) had care- 
fully packed up when about to take his depart- 
ure, but which, owing to the precipitancy of 
his flight, was left standing with various other 
valuables, in the public market-place of Prague. 
It had meanwhile struck one o'clock. A heavy 
rain was falling without, and detaining me a 
prisoner within the church. I was alone with 
my attendant, who imboldened by this circum- 
stance, or moved by my eloquent appeals, mani- 
fested symptoms of relenting. He opened the 
Venzeslaus chapel, and told me that, though he 
dared not on any account point out the spot to 
me, yet if I would keep my eye on him, he 
would slightly nod his head when he came to 
the picture behind which was concealed the iron 
door of the shrine where the regalia were kept. 
We proceeded accordingly to inspect all the 
curiosities of the chapel. Firstly, the beautiful 
agates and jaspers with which the walls of the 
chapel are inlaid. Then the tombs of the first 
dukes of Bohemia, and lastly, the ring Avhich 
Duke Venzeslaus grasped when he fell to the 
ground wounded by his brother. This brother, 
whose name was Boleslav, coveted the crown, 
and placed himself at the head of a conspiracy 
of malcontents, in whose eyes V^enzeslaus was 
too pious, too credulous, and too fond of the 
priests. Venzeslaus carried his piety .^o far, 
that he planted and tended with his dwn hand 
the grapes and the corn of which w.is })repared 
the bread and the wine used for the communion, 
cutting, thrashing, and grinding the corn, baking 
the bread, and pressing the wine. What with 
these pious exercises, and his constant attention 
to the churches he was planning and building, 
he left himself no time to attend to state affairs. 
One day, having repaired to Bunzlau, to attend 
the consecration of a church, he became his 
brother's guest, and this opportunity was looked 
on by the conspirators as favourable to the exe- 
cution of their design. On the following morn- 
ing, the 28lh of September, 936, Venzeslaus 
hastened, as was his custom, to church, in obe- 
dience to the matin's chime. At the church- 
door he "met his brother, whom he praised for 
his hospitable entertainment of the preceding 
day. Boleslav then said, in a bantering tone, 
"lAvill entertain thee better to-day," and with 
that drew his sword and dealt the duke a heavy 
blow over the head. He did not wound him 
mortally, and Venzeslaus had strength enough 
left to disarm his assassin and fling him to the 
ground. "May God forgive you for this, bro- 
ther," he cried. Boleslav, meanwhile, having 
fallen, roared out for help as though he had not 
been the assailer but the assailed. His servant^ 
and several of the conspirators came to his as- 
sistance and attacked the duke, who defended 
himself stoutly while retreating to the church- 
door, where he fell, pierced by the swords of his 
enemies. In dying he *asped convulsively the 
iron ring of the door, and when his body M'as 
brought to the Hradshin, to be buried in St. 
Vitus's church, which he had built there, the 
ring, also, was brought thither, and has been 
preserved there ever siiice, where every travel- 
ler may have the pleasure of grasping it in his 
turn, even though he should feel no avocation 
3 



to earn the glory of martyrdom and canoniza- 
tion, after the fashion of Duke Venzeslaus. 

We came next to the tomb of Duke Brz^tislav 
II., then viewed some pictures of saints, in- 
cluding those of St. Ludmilla, St. Christopher, 
and sundry others. I kept a shai*p eye on my 
guide, and did not fail to notice at which picture 
it was that he nodde.l,- however slight the gesture 
was. My reader and I are both in the secret as 
to the meaning of that nod; but at which picture 
was if! That is a secret, gentle reader, in which 
I must not let thee participate, lest thou betray 
it to some designing revolutiohist, from whom 
the crown and sceptr.e of Bohemia might be 
exposed to serious peril. 

Every Bohemian loves to Avander among these 
monuments of the ancient dukes and saints of 
the land, rich with a thousand associations with 
names and things, the memory of which he has 
learned from infancy to love and venerate; but 
the cathedral of the Hradshin has. also its re- 
verse, for at the opposite side of the church is a 
series of votive tablets, paintings, and carvangs 
in wood, intended to commemorate the victory 
on the White Mountain, a victory which, even 
at the present day, is an object of sorrow to the 
Bohemians, and which certainl}'' exercised a 
more permanent influence over the fortunes of 
the country, than was ever exercised by any 
other victory in Bohemia, either before or since, 
for it may be said to iiave decided the fate of 
the kingdi.mi for tlic 220 years lliat have since 
elapsed. Rudely car\'cd in wood may be seen 
a complete representation of the battle; of the 
entrance of the Duke of Bavaria, the Emperor 
Ferdinand's general, into Prague; of the poor 
Winter King's flight; of the tribunal that Fer- 
dinand established. No German, no Austrian, 
no lover of his kind can withhold his pity when 
he sees a Bohemian moving mournfully through 
this gallery. Who, in fact, can M-ithhold a tear 
when he thinks with what fearful throes Utra- 
quism and the Reformation came into life in 
Bohemia, and with what frightful reactions, after 
so painful a birth, they were again annihilated'? 

Truly gratifying are the pictures presented to 
us by Bohemian historians of the condition of 
the country under the mild emperors and kings 
towards the close of the sixteenth century. The 
arts and sciences flourished. The churches 
were adorned with paintings of rare merit; pic- 
ture-galleries were collected; Tycho Brahe, 
Kepler, and other eminent spirits of the age, 
studied, wrote, and taught in the capital of Bo- 
hemia. The schools, both in town and country 
were excellent, and even among the women of 
the land, there were many distinguished for their 
leai"»ing and information. Poets and orators 
rose and flourished, and the works then written 
still serve as classical models of language. The 
several religious parlies, the Utraquists, the 
Hussites, the Bohemian Brethren, the Catholics, 
and the Protestants, all lived in harmony with 
one another, and such was the spirit of tolera- 
tion, that often in one and the same village, three 
religiousparties, with their three several pastors, . 
lived in peace and friendship together. 

The angels hi heaven must have rejoiced over 
such a state of things, but the Jesuits were 
grieved and ofl"ended by it. They held the heans 
of the princes in their hands, and never rested 



26 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



till they had hurled the firebrand into the peace- 
ful house, and when they had succeeded m set- 
•ting it in a blaze, they sent princes and armies 
in to ».iench it, and utterly to destroy the burn- 
ing edifice. 'I'he battle of the White Mountain, 
where the insurgents under the Winter King, 
Frederick of the Palatinate, were defeated by 
Maximilian of Bavaria, doriilfd ev^ry ilii?!?. 
'J'he imperial troops ihtiip:", I riv.-ii-. wl, -nrr 
they commanded the \v\\r\- lau'l. im-i li ■:<! i 
like a victim bound to liie sUiLe, wlnle fcnli- 
nand II., in obedience to the suggestions of his 
Jesuits, subjected the country to a series of ope- 
rations that biircj a striking similitude to the 
ordinances wuh winch Philip II. had afflicted 
Belgium. 

A scaffold Avas erected at Prague, nnon wliich 
the leaders of the insurrection sufler-d in ([nick 
succession. The sentence pronounced and exe- 
cuted upon those declared guilty of high trea- 
son, was a masterpiece of elaborate criminal 
adjudication. It was therein minutely deter- 
mined, who should be executed with the axe 
anil u'iio wiih llie sword, who should lose his 
right hand htfnre and who after the execution, 
and who was to have his tongne torn out. It 
was also specified how the bodies of such as 
were already dead were to be disposed of; who 
were to be cut into four, Avho into eight pieces, 
and on what gates these several pieces were to 
be exposed to the public gaze. 

'I'he establishment of this tribunal was fol- 
lowed by the commencement of a systematic 
counter-revolution. In every house of every 
Bohemian town, not only the heads of families, 
but their wives, workpeople, and servants, in 
short all, the inmates of each house, were called 
on to return a categorical answer to these ques- 
tions: 

Are you by birth a Catholic'? 
Have you been converted to the Catholic faith] 
Do you promise to become a Catholic] 
Whoever refuses to embrace Catholicism, 
was declared incompetent to exercise any cor- 
porate trade; and was generally deprived of his 
property into the bargain, and expelled from the 
country. So far was the system of persecution 
carried, that the Protestant poor and sick were 
turned out of the hospitals, and orders were 
given that none but Catholics should in future 
be admitted there. 

After this state of things, '>.e details of which 
are frightful and revolting, had continued for 
seven years, the emperor came to Prague with 
his family, and, having sumn\oncd a diet, had 
his son Ferdinand III. cr..w,-u\l as king. A i'ew 
years before, the (lunMion hail l.i'eii ;:Tavely dis- 
cussed by the slales, whether it would not be 
better to erect Boliemia into a republic, like 
Switzerland or Holland, than to elect Frederick 
of the Palatinate to the throne; in this new diet, 
no one even ventured to raise the question 
whether the crown was elective or hereditary. 
Ferdinand annulled the Letter of Grace, and all 
the privileges of the states> commanding at the 
same time^that the Bohemian language should 
no longer be used in any of the law tribunals. 
The nobles readily adopted the German lan- 
guage, and the townspeople were obliged^ to 
learn it, for tlie monks preached only in Ger- 
man. The burghers in the cities began to be 



ashamed of speaking Bohemian, though, not 
long before, even the nobles had prided them- 
selves on their national language, and had not 
hesitated to speak it at the court of the German 
emperors. The peasant only continued to speak 
as his ancestors had spoken, and what had beea 
the language of a imtion, came to be considered 
thi' dialect of the vulgar. Distinguished as Bo- 
b iiiia had been, vtnder the preceding emperors, 
{'■'I- the cultivation of science and art, she 3iow 
sank rapidly into ignorance and barbarism. 
That the people might be more readily ruled by 
being kept in ignorance, the Jesuits went from 
house to house, as missionaries, and took away 
what books they could find, and burnt them. So 
effectually do they appear to have performed .. 
tlieir mission, that to speak of a "Bohemian" 
book, or a " scarce" book, is now esteemed the 
same. Even the costume of the people was 
changed, and gradually superseded by that of 
the conquerors. 

"I must remind my hearers," says the his- 
torian Pelzel, at the close of his reflections on 
the consequences of the battle of the White 
Mountain, " that here the history of Bohemia 
closes, and the history of other nations in Bo- _ 
hernia commences." 

Bohemia now stands like its metropolitan 
church, incomplete, weather-beaten, and cover- 
ed with scars, but like its church, also restored 
to peace and order. We must read the resolu- 
tions of the Bohemian diet if we wish to know, 
to what extent, and according to what plans, the 
Bohemians meant to have constructed their 
state edifice; but the original plan of St. Vitus's 
church may more easily be studied, for all the 
drawings are still preserved in a small room 
over the vault of one of the chapels. In its 
present condition the church is evidently a mere 
commencement of the architect's design; if 
completed, the building would have been more 
than three times its present size. 

The treasury of the church is rich in a mul- 
titude of curious and valuable objects. In one 
cabinet I counted no less than .33 goklen mitres.^ 
I took several of them in my hanel, and observed 
to my guide that I thought them heavy. "And 
yet, sir," said the man, archly, "our gentlemen 
are so ^-eiy fond of wearing them!" In various 
drawers are preserved no less than 368 priestly 
vestments for the service of the mass, many of 
liiem of astonishing richness and splendour. 
Om- of tliem Avas of a material that might have 
furnished a mantle, either for a beggar or a 
pi'ince; it was of common straw, but plaited and 
worlceil with such surprising art, that the whole 
looked likc'Mabof;:!." embroidery. Most of these 
vestments ai'i" gills front Bohemiair nobles, and 
the liistory of soine of those presents may con- 
tributi' to illustraio tlie character of the country. 
Thus, one vestnient has been made up from the 
bridal diess of a (Jountcss Tshernin, another of 
the coronation robes of Maria Theresa. One of 
the richest of all, andAvhich is only displa}^ed 
on occasions of great solemnitv, has been deco- 
rated by the Piince of Schv\artze;roarg, with a 
number of golden bunclies of grapes and vine- 
leaves, and -with all the buttons worn on his 
wedding coat. Each of these fiiUions is a jewel 
of considerable- value, fashioned into the form 
of an animal, and set in gold. What wasteful 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



27 



profusion! and what a strange whim, to dedicate 
the wcddin!^ dresses of lords and ladies to the 
service of the church! 

One of the vestiariits Mas embroidered by 
the hand of Maria Theresa; but of all the em- 
broideries, the most wonderful is one made iu 
the beginning of the fourteenth century by 
Anne Queen of Lohemia (Anna Kurukvnu 
Tshtska). She and her sister Elizabeth were 
the two last descendants of the ancient princely 
line of Przemysl, whom Libussa called to the 
throne from the village of Staditz near Teplitz. 
Some of our young ladies, who think they have 
attained no mean proficiency in the art of em- 
broidering, ought to come to Prague, for the 
sake of looking at the work of the last princess 
of the house of Przemysl. It is a piece of white 
linen, upon which are worked, with threads of 
gold, the most beautiful and delicate llowers 
and arabesques. The pattern is precisely the 
same on each side, and withal so accurate and yet 
so fanciful, that one is never tired of achniring it. 
The pattern, moreover, is constantly varied by 
the invention of new figures and forms, though 
the whole piece is thirt)'-three ells in length. 
The length of way which the liule needle and 
the dainty finger of the qu.een must have traced 
over the linen with golden thread, is estimated 
at about ten leagues; and to me it seems as if 
the labour of half a life must have been devoted 
to the work, which was executed in exile, and 
sent to the Hradshin, as the parting gift of the 
last scion of a long race of kings. 

Of rehgious relics the church has also an 
abundant supply. Among'" others, a neatly or- 
namented little hand, said to have belonged to 
one of the little children killed at Bethlehen), on 
the occasion of the massacre of the' innocents; 
a piece of the tablecloth that served our Saviour 
and his disciples on the occasion of the Last 
iJupper; and a nail taken from the real cross, 
and now shown in a splendid setting of pure 
gold. A piece of the sponge with vhich our 
Saviour's lips were -moistened when on the 
cross, and a thorn from the real crown of thorns, 
are set in a crucifix, which crucifix, the kings 
of Bohemia respectfully kiss on the occasion of 
their coronation. In addition to these, there are 
several relics brought by Godfrey de Bouillon 
from the graves of Abraliam, Isaac, and Jacob. 

In addition to the crown and sceptre, con- 
cealed in the secret cabinet of which mention 
was made several pages back, there -are other 
parts of the regalia respecting which less mys- 
tery is made, and upon which, accordingly, I 
was allowed to feast my eyes. There were, for 
instance, the four golden statues of tlie four an- 
cient Boiiemian saints: Adalbert, Venzeslaus, 
Vitus, and Ludmilla. These four statues are 
always carried in procession before the kings 
on the occasion of their coronation. I was also 
shown the sword of state, with which the new- 
ly-crowned monarch always imposes tlie honour 
of knighthood upon tile shoulders of a select 
number of his subjects. This sword is remark- 
ably light. Some time ago, a little rust was dis- 
coTTcred about half way down the blade. That 
it might not, howevjer, be said, Bohemia's sword 
of state had grown rusty, the ofi"ending"spot was 
cut or filed away, and the form of a cross was 
given to the hole thus formed. The said hole 



I saw with my o-\^ti eyes; its cause and origin 
I can only give upon the. authority of my in- 
formant. 



PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS AND CONVENTS. 

The royal library is contained in the Great 
College Building ( Cullegmmsgfbaude) as it is 
called. My visit to the 100,000 volumes hap- 
pened on a noiseless holiday afternoon. The 
reading rooms' that in the morning had been 
occupied by the studious, were now still and 
untenanted, like a deserted bee-hive. It was an 
unaccustomed time for a visit to the librarj-; 
but the good-natured librarian made an excep- ' 
tion on my account, and did not grudge' the 
trouble to which I pat him. "U^hen the last 
heavy lock closed behind us, and I was able to 
let my eye wander through the long halls, I ex- 
perienced that feeling of mingled awe and en- 
joyment, which I always experience on entering 
a large library, where the boards are so richly 
decked with the produce of human intellect. 
Thick walls and stout bolts shut out the rest of 
the woi-ld from us, and we wandered, like her- 
mits in a solitude, but a solitude where nearly 
all the fritits of mental speculation "hung invft- 
ingly aro\ind us. I thought of Ulysses in the 
Cyclops' cave, examining the bright bowls full 
of rich milk, and thr packages of cheese and 
butter, and the cas'r-^ of honey, all filled to the 
brim. The dill'rrcnre was, that Ulysses had 
been locked in by his Cyclops, whereas we had 
just locked out our Cyclops, the great, nois}', 
busy, bustUng world.' 

At a time when, according to the exaggerated 
accounts of so'me, 60,000 students were assem- 
bled in Prague from all parts of Germany,* 
these rooms must have literally swarmed like 
a bee-hive; but if those times were to return 
again, the halls and readings-rooms of the library 
M'ould still be found sufficiently spacious. Of 
the sixt3'-six deans, who Avere then at the head 
of what was called the nations, only twelve were 
Bohemians. The Germans Avere by far the 
most numerous. Even then there appears to 
have existed something of the jealousy that still 
prevails betAueen German and Bohemian. Huss 
was a zealous adherent to the Bohemian party. 
To destroy the influence exercised by the Ger- 
mans, he recommen4ed that in all university af- 
fairs the Bohemian nation should have two votes, 
and all _ the other nations together only one. 
This measure led, in 1409, to tlie departure of 
the Gennan students, and to the rapid decline of 
the university. Thus did the people of Prague 
strike a severe blow at the prosperity of their 
city, and even in Bohemia there was at the time 
no lack of ridicule cast upon the Bohemian 
party; but the incensed German students and 
professors, it is still believed in Prague, ad- 
dressed bitter remonstrances to the emperor and 



* The most moderate accounts say 20,00n, a number 
still abuniianlly large, when vvp consider thai even ai the 
present day, all ihe German universities together do nai 
contain a larger number. And yet there were then oiher 
other universities in Germany, and many German siu- 
dents went lo Italy. Besides, Germany is at present much 
more populous, and must contain a great many more peo- 
ple than it did then, who occupy iheoiBelves with learned 
pursuits. 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



clerg;y; and the vindictive charges thus brought 
against. Huss, are supposed to have done more 
in exciting the pope and emperor against the 
reformer, and to have contributed more to bring 
about his melancholy iate, than any apprehen- 
sion that w&s ever entertained on account of 
his doctrines. 

Unless the University of Prague had at that 
time more books than it has now, the whole 
library must have been exhausted if only each 
student occupied one work at a time. On the 
26th of July, 1841, the number of volumes was 
99,888, and the catalogues are so arranged, that 
the sum total may every day be known with 
the greatest precision. 

Although much that was interesting has been 
removed to Vienna, there are still books in the 
Prague library quite as well deserving of de- 
scription as any other curiosity, either in the 
town or its vicinity. One of the most curious is, 
perhaps, a Hussite hymn-book, which is written 
and illuminated with singular splendour. The 
book, which must have cost many thousands of 
tiorins, Avas the joint production of a large por- 
tion of the inhabitants of Prague. Every guild 
and corporation of the city had a few hymns 
\yitten, and pictures painted to accompany 
them, and several noble families did ;lie same, 
each family or corporation placing its arms or 
crest before its own portion of the book. In 
most of the other cities of Bohemia similar 
hymn-books were composed during the ascend- 
ancy of Utraquism, and I doubt whether of all 
the Christian sectsthat have at v^urious times 
protested against the pope, there ever was one 
that produced hymn-books of such surjiassing 
splendour. All the pictures in .that of Prague 
are of a superior order, and executed in a mas- 
terly style. Most of them represent incidents 
from biblical history, or from the life of Huss, 
as for instance, his dispute with a popish priest, 
and his death at the stake. Bloated priests 
and monks, pope and emperor, are represented 
grouped around the funeral pile of Huss, whom 
angels are comforting in his agony. 

Poor Huss raised a flame in which he himself 
was burnt, as well as many that came after him, 
but from that flame posterity has derived neither 
light nor warmth. 'I'he history of the Calixlines 
of Bohemia is a sadder one than of any other 
religious sect, for no doctrine ever made its way 
amid acts of greater violenee, and none was e^-er 
annihilated by a more ruthless reaction. Lu- 
theranism was also cradled amid fearful storms, 
but the tempests have spent themselves, and 
millions have become peaceful participatory; in 
the blessings at which Lutheranism aimed. The 
Hussites raised a mighty conflagration, of which 
the Auslrians succeeded in treading out the last 
spark; the Lutherans lighted a roaring fire on 
their own hearths, and their homes, in spite of 
pope and emperor, have been warmed by its 
genial influence ever since. Yet Huss, despite 
of his heresy, lives in the affections of his coun- 
trymen. I have often observed in them a strange 
struggle, on this score, between religion and 
nationality. As Bohemians they love to take 
credit for all the great things that the Hussites 
did, though as Catholics they cannot, of course, 
approve of them. 

Utraquism preceded the art of painting; hence 



the profuse adornment of the hymn-books I have 
described. The Hussites afterwards caused a 
multitude of books to be printed in Bohemia, 
and when this could no longer be done in the 
country itself, their bibles were printed abroad, 
in Venice, for instance, whose printing-presses 
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, were 
at the disposal of almost every religious sect. 
In the Prague library arc several bibles in the 
Bohemian language, that were printed at Venice. 
In one of the year 150(), is a picture of hell, in 
which the devil is treading down a whole host 
of monks and popes; to this some zealous com- 
mentator has aflixed a manuscript annotation, 
to inform us that the picture represents "Pope 
Julius IL in Hell." 

The best bible, however, in the Tshekhian 
language was of a much later date (1579 — 
1593) when a Moravian nobleman called toge- 
ther a number of learned Bohemians to his castle 
of Kralitz, where the sacred volume was trans- 
lated anew from the original text. This trans- 
lation is said to be the best: the Bohemians even 
maintain its superiority to any translation that 
has ever appeared in any language, a point 
which veiy few scholars are in a condition to 
dispute. This translation is known under the 
title of Bibfia Czeska Brafeiska (?'. e. the Tshek- 
hian Brother Bible), and is still occasionally 
printed at Berlin for the use of the Moravian 
brethren. 

In the Prague library I found a copy of the 
first book ever printed in Bohemia. It's date 
is 1462. These old Bohemian books are well 
printed, and upon solid lasting paper, like our 
old German and Dutch editions, which look no- 
thing the Avorse for the three or four centuries 
that have passed over their heads. Our modern 
paper is mere tinder in comparison. I took up 
a new book that had come from the binder's only 
a few days before, and while I was turning ovef 
the leaves several of the corners broke off. If 
we go on iniproimig the manufacture of our 
paper, as we have done of late years, there will 
be nothing left in our public libraries, five hun- 
dred years hence, but the solid old incunabulse 
and parchment manuscripts. 

In the halls of the library may be seen the 
portraits of several Jesuits of Prague, and of 
other distinguished men. Among them are 
Campianus, the Jesuit, who was executed in 
England under Elizabeth, and Collin, the friend, 
of the late Palalogus, avIjo was burnt in Rome 
by order of the inquisition. There is also a 
picture of Georg Plachy, who, at the head of 
the students of Pi-ague, defended the city bridge 
so gloriously against the Swedes. The most 
interesting of all these worthies, to .me, was a 
marble burst of Mozart, the greatest musical 
genius that Germany ever produced. This bust 
stands in a room, the shelves of which are filled 
only with the woi'ks of the great master. 

Mozart is one of the very i'ew Germans for 
whom even the BohemiaTi patriots express their 
respect without any arriere peyisfct but then 
they usually remind you, that though Mozart 
was born in Germany, they consider him "to 
have been a Bohemian in all but the place of 
his birth.' In the first place, they will tell you, 
he wrote all his best works, his "Don Juan," 
"Figaro," and a few others, in Prague, in the 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



29 



atmosphere of Bohemian song. Then they 
will add, that nowhere out of Bohemia is Mozart 
properly understood. In Vienna the people were 
at first quite unable to estimate liim. and Mozart 
himself, they -will assure you, would often say, 
that he had nowhere been Cdmprehended but in 
Prague. '-My father," said a Bohemian once 
to me, "was one day looking for Mozart's grave 
in the cemetery at Vienna, hut the gravedigger 
was a long time before he could make out whom 
my father meant by the divine Mozart. At 
length the man suddenly cried out, 'Oh, per- 
haps your honour means the musician that was 
drowned!' " I thought the anecdote much more 
characteristic of the place where it was told 
me, than of that to which it referred. 

The Bohemians in thus claiming Mozart be- 
cause he lived among them, reverse the conduct 
of the Poles, who would rob us even of Coper- 
nicus, because hQ was born in a city subject 
to Poland, though his parents were Germans, 
though he received a German education, and 
resided the greater part of his life in Germany. 
The Slavonians are apt to appropriate every 
German who comes among them, and assimi- 
lates himself to their spirit. On the other hand, 
however, we are often disposed to look upon 
many a Slavonian author as a German, merely 
because he has chosen the German language 
as the vehicle for giving his ideas to the world, 
in the same way that many a German, because 
he happened to write in French, is always set 
down in France for a Frenchman. We often 
look upon all the Western Slavonians as so 
many Germans, perhaps because we consider 
that those countries owe their education and 
enlightenment to Germany, but the Slavonians 
themselves are much more exact in these mat- 
ters. For instance, before I came to Bohemia, 
I never dreamt of looking on Huss but as a 
German. In Bohemia I was soon corrected 
on this point, and learnt that Huss (the h 
must be pronounced with a* strong guttural 
intonation) is a arenuine Tshekhian plebeian 
patronymic, and means neither more nor less 
than goose. Huss himself was born in a Tshek- 
hian village, and was the son of Slavonian 
peasants, and in proportion as I became ac- 
quainted more intimately with his history, among 
his native hills, I was made gradually aware 
tliat the Hussite wars were not merely religiotis 
wars, but were in reality, a struggle on the part 
of the Bohemians to shake otf the domination 
of the Germans; the emperor and his priests 
were hateful rather as foreign rulers than on 
account of their theological errors. 

If I am not mistaken, I have heard it asserted 
at Prague that the first inventor of gunpowder 
was likewise a Bohemian; that we owe the art 
of. printing, not to a German, but a Slavonian 
of Bohemia, has lately been repeatedly maintain- 
ed, and many imagine they have demonstrated 
it in the most incontrovertible manner. The 
Bohemian version of the story is this. There 
lived in the early part of the fifteenth century, 
in a Bohemian town called Guttenberg, or Knt- 
tenberg, a man of the name of Joseph Tshasfni. 
He was a learned man, and al"ler the fashion of 
the learned men of his time, he translated his 
•Bohemian name into Latin, and called himself 
Faustus, for tshastni is the Tshekhian word for 



happy. At the same time, according to a prac- 
tice tliatalso then prevailed among learned men, 
he added to his own name that of the place of 
his birth, and called himself Joannes Faustus 
Kuttenbergensis. In 142l,aboutthecommence- 
inent of the Hussite Avars, he M-as driven 
from his country, and arrived as a fugitive 
at Slrasburg, -where he dro]ipcd the name of 
Faustus, and called himself simply Johann 
Guttenberg. There is an ancient manuscript 
to which reference is made in support of this 
claim, and in which the folloAving sentence oc- 
curs: — " Fosfeaquarn artem libroriim iniprimen- 
dorum 'isdem Joannes Kuttenbergensis Boemus, 
patria Kutltnbergensis, prius Joannes Faustus 
nominates, qui circa annum 1421, bella Hussitica 
fngiens in Germaniam abiit Strassburgise Kutten- 
bergium a. patria {ex more ejus temporis et sitnul 
ut pntriain suam ah inventione Typographiae 
' commendaret) appellavit." 

The house is still shown in Prague in which 
this Mr. Faustus is said to have lived. He must 
have been in comfortable circumstances, for the 
house is a large one, and has since been fitted 
up for the reception of a public institution, that 
of the Deaf and Dumb School, which I visited, 
partly for Fanstus's sake, and partly for the 
sake of the pupils instructed there. There 
were fortjr-one pupils residing in the house, be- 
sides twelve children who came merely as day 
scholars. Very few among them, I found, were 
completely deaf. The sound of the German « 
(like the English oo in prnof) tln^y could ahva)^S 
distinguish, and wlieu we spuke very slftwly 
and distinctly, the children cottid understand 
the greater part of what we said by closely ob- 
serving the movement of our lips; but, of course, 
they understand their own language of signs 
much more fluently. Many of their signs were 
of their own invention. The sign for God and 
heaven was always accompanied with a pious 
look upward. I tried to tell them something 
about a tower, and in doing so, endeavoured to 
imitate the sign which the teacher had taught 
me as representing the word; but I saM' evidently 
that they misunderstood me, and when th^ 
teacher came to mv assistance, it turned out thar 
they had imagined I was telling them something 
about the pope, whom they picture to themselves 
as a kiiuT of moral tower rising far above the " 
r^ of human kind. 

One of the most important public institutions 
of Prague is the Lunatic Asylum, which, though 
it may not "fulfil all that, at the present day, is 
expected from such an establishment," as one 
of the physicians belonging to the house ex- 
presses himself, must yet be considered among 
the best of its kind, as" I think my readers will 
themselves be ready to infer from the particu- 
lars I am about to relate of it. 

The average number of patients usually in 
the hospital is 100, of whom about one half are 
dismissed cured. The number of patients usually 
in the hospital is 190. The gardens are handsome 
and spacious, and distributed into diflisrent sec- 
tions for the several gradations of madness. 
Those who are not considered dangerous meet 
every Sunday in the principal garden, on which 
occasion a band of music is always provided. 
The labour in the kitchen garden is always per- 
formed by the patients, and beyond these gardens 



KOIIL'S AUSTRIA. 



there are some fields of considerable extent, 
Avhich are ploughed, sowed, and reaped by the 
inmates of the house. A piece of hop-ground 
even is attached to the establishment, that those 
patients who come from the circle of Bunzlau, 
where this species of cultivation prevails to a 
great extent, may find themselves engaged in 
their accustomed occupation. Ct)nstant occu- 
pation is lookoii upon as contributing more than 
any other means to a cure. We saw no less 
than forty or fifty poor lunatics engaged in mow- 
ing, digging, weeding, watering, planting, &c. 

With the exception of the straight-jacket, no 
species of corporal punishment is ever resorted 
to. Nearly all the work iu the interior of the 
house is likewise performed by the patients, — 
such as cleaning the rooms, malcing the beds, 
chopping.wood, cooking, carrying waier, and the 
like. For my own part, I experienced sincere 
satisfaction, as I Avandered about among the 
busy multitude, and thought of the principles by 
which such institutions were governed only 30 
or 40 3-ears ago, of the scenes which were then 
daily witnessed there, of human beings laden 
witli cliaius, or strapped to benches, and fre- 
quently scourged with revolting cruelty. A lu- 
natic asylum in those days was a place in which 
madmen were shut up tHat they might not 
inconvenience the rest of the world; noAv the 
object kept in view is to restore them to society. 

It is characteristic of music-loving Bohemia, 
that in the lunatic asylum of its capital, music 
should be considered one of the chief instru- 
ments for the improvement of the patients. In 
addition to the garden concerts, in which all 
assist who can, there are quartettos every morn- 
ing and evening in the wards, and a musical di- 
rector is appointed for the express purpose of 
superintending this part of the domestic arrange- 
ments. 

Among the patients there was none who ex- 
cited my interest more than a gentleman of the 
name of Sieber, an accomplished scholar, who 
had spent sometime in the East, had written 
several works of acknowledged merit, and had, 
one time, been looked upon as a man of 
great natural abilities, as well as of vai'ied ac- 
quirements. On first entering the house, he 
continued for some time to devote himself to 
his accustomed avocations, but gradually he fell 
into a brooding melancholy, and thence into a 
state of sullen madness whence no man had 
been able to rouse him. I saw him lying in his 
bed, quite motionles'S, with his eyes closed, and 
his arms crossed over his breast, more like a 
statue on a tomb than a human being. In this 
position, I -was told, he lay almost always, no 
woiil p\-pr i^suingfrom his lips. His friends oc- 
casioiuiUy vlsil him and A^-eep around liis bed, but 
he seems uiiconsciou-^ of th'ir pn'-^eiico. I was 
afterwards sorry to hear lh;it tins s'-iitlemaa's 
presence in the madlionse siood in .some con- 
nection with liis ])olitical opinions, which he 
had, perha;)s, the imprudence to proclaim some- 
what too freely.* 



* riiis pxprpssi'in niieht Ipad >Tr Kohl's rpador.'j In sup- 
pose the oriemuliai Sjpber. to h;ivp bppii ap^luii-al viciiin 
of ihe Aiisiriaii yivrriiiiipnt. wlinrpas in |ioinl ot fact, rliir 
ing his stay in rari=, in 1S.3'), he mamfHsipil siirh pviilpnl 
FVinploins of insanlly, as U-u hrs friends litilp hopp of bp 
ina itble to preserve him to socieiy much lonser Francis 
William Sieber was born at Prague, in 1785. Ai his own 



I was allowed to see the lists of the patientiS 
treated during several preceding years, from 
which I deduced two or three statistical infer- 
ences that may not be without value when com- 
I)ared with the results obtained at other estab- 
lishments of a similar character. Among 517 
patients, I found there had been 206 women and 
311 men; so that the men were in the proportion 
to the women of more than three to two. Wed- 
lock seemed in 'some measure to be a preserva- 
tive against madness, for of the 517 patients, 
293 had been unmarried, and 224 had been in 
the holy estate; the proportion, therefore, of the 
single to the wedded patients had been as 4 to 
3. The middle stage of life would appear to be 
most liable to attacks of insanity, for of the 517 
inmates there were 15G in whom mental aliena- 
tion had manifested itself between the ages of 
30 and 40. 

Of the 311 men, 148 had been servants and 
day labourers. Of agricultural labourers and 
gardeners there were only 4. Among the 206 
women there liad been 1 1 sempstresses. Among' 
the men, I also ol>scrved, as a remarkable fact, 
that there had been 8 schoolmasters, or 2-^ per 
cent, of the whole. 

The blind-school is, comparatively speaking, 
unimportant, atibrding accommodation to only 
sixteen children, and remarkable only on ac- 
count of the religious ladies (the Grey Sisters) 
under whose superintendence the house is 
placed. For this puqiose four young ladies 
Avere sent from Prague to Nancy, to pass their 
noviciate in the house of the Soeurs Crises, and 
prepare themselves for the charitable office of 
tending the sick. These four ladies on their 
return, with a French abbess at their head, 
founded the institution, to which has already 
been added, an asylum for the sick blind, in 
which I found twenty-eight patients. It is gene- 



expense he travellefl. in 1817, by way of Vienna .and 
Trieste, to the Arrhipelaco, where he made the island of 
Candiathe immediate object of his researches, and collect- 
ed materials for a work which he published in 1822, under 
the title vf Reisc nnch cler Insel. Kreta, which is accompa- 
nied by a number of valuable encravinps executed from 
his own drawings In 1S18 he visited Eaypt, ascended the 
Nile toThebe8,and afterwarUs travel led throush Palestine 
and Syria, and during this journey hia collections were so 
extensive and valuable, that, when on his return ihey 
were exhibited in Vienna the public refused for a long 
time to believe thatoiie man could have collected so raucli 
in so short a lime His collection of Eiryptian antiquities 
was afterwards purchased by the Academy of .Sciences ir» 
Munich In 1822, Sieber sailed from .Marseilles on a voy- 
ace round the world, during which he visited the Isle of 
France, the ("ape of Good Hope. New Holland, New Zea- 
land, Cape Horn, and arrived in London in July, 1824. 
His collections in the depariutent of natural history, dur- 
i>iK this voyasp, were astonishingly exiensive, and were 
exhibited to tiip public in Dresden in 1824. Here already 
symptoms of insanity besan to manifest ihernselves He 
was haiiiited by a belief ilial an eminent Austrian states- 
man aimed al liis life, and ihi.s notion continued to ensrosa 
him more and more He imagined he had discovered an 
arcanum Tt the rnrp of liydrophobia, and offered to sell 
his secret to the iMiiperor of Austria fir a larae sum of 
money. Neiilo-r tlie Aii.sirian, however, nor any other 
government maiiifesteil a willingiiessio pay Sieher'.s price, 
which induced him to eo to Paris, where in 18.30 he pub- 
lished a Pioapcclus iVunnouvemi syxl^mede lanalure, a 
work which boirays in every pas:e siitficient proof of the 
melani Imly roarimon iiiio which iia author had gunk, to 
say nothin;; of a rPiiiarkahle sitriialure affixed to the book." 
"■Pi iincois Ciiiilliiiime, S'i'her, ie pfna griuid not Otimonde, 
!a hel.: de t Apocalypse " Aii^'iii; liis other works may be 
meiilioiipd the followine: On the Radical Cure of Hjdro- 
phobia. Aliiiiich, 1S20: On thp Mummies of Eaypt, their • 
Origin, Onject, Acc, Vienna, IS.'O; A Journey from Cairo to 
Jerusalem and bacl£, Prague, 1823 — 2V. 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



31 



rally said that the sick are much better tended 
by these ladies, who devote themselves to the 
cause from a motive of religious zeal, than by 
hired nuiscs, who can seldom be iiilluenced ex- 
cept by the fear of losing their places. We 
visited the French abbess, and found in her a 
stirring;, bustling lady. She was writing at her 
table when we entered, and left her pajiers and 
account books to receive us. She told us we 
must look upon the institution as only in its 
infancy, but that it would gradually grow and 
become more extensive. I asked her whether 
she felt herself comfcntable in a foreign country. 
At first, she answered, she had pined after home, 
and one day, asshe was sitting alone in her room, 
brooding over the many inconveniences of a fo- 
reign residence, somebody knocked at her door. 
An elderly gentleman came in, who introduced 
himself as a landed proprietor, and began to 
inquire after the circumstances and prospects 
of the institution. "Ma chore mere," he said, 
"you are a stranger here, and must have many 
difficulties to contend with. Your undertaking 
is still a young one, but it deserves universal 
sympathy. Allow me to hand you this parcel 
as a trifling contribution to the comforts of tiiose 
under your charge." Before she could thank 
him, the stranger was gone, and had left a pack- 
age containing a considerable sum of money in 
her hands. About three years afterwards she 
received a letter from a Prince L., who expressed 
a wish to establish a branch in,<<titutii;u for the 
poor blind at Melnik. After some preliminary 
correspondence, she proceeded to Melnik, to 
superintend the formation of the new asylum, 
when in Prince L. she discovered the benevo- 
lent stranger, who had contributed so much by 
his benevolence, to dissipate the melancholy of 
the early part of her residence in Prague. 

She told me she often received visits from 
Protestants, like myself, dflt of Northern Ger- 
many, on which occasions she always enjoyed, 
in secret, the timid embarrassment, with which 
the]^ entered a conventual house, their minds 
evidently full of prejudice and wicked thoughts. 
She never allowed herself, she said, to be at all 
put out of her way by this, but spoke with them 
unreservedlj', and seldom failed to have the 
pleasure of observing that her guests were 
•gradually inspired with confidence, and departed 
with better thoughts than those with which they 
came. And I must own, it went so, in some 
measure, with me. Some of the Protestant 
scales fell from ray eyes, when two of the sis^rs 
entered the room and presented themselves to 
me, not as pale, withered, hoIlow-e3-ed nuns, but 
active, healthy, busy housekeepers. One of 
them, in particular, was full of life and bustle, 
as she stirred about in the kitchen among the 
helpless inmates of the house. She could hardly 
be said to have retired from the world, she said, 
for she rose early, and was hard at work all day 
long. 

The order of the Sisters and Brothers of Mer- 
cy — the grey, the brown, the black, the green, 
the blue, and the red — fill so important a blank 
in the system of public charity in Catholic 
countries, that every one must wish for their 
continuance until a better organization is sub- 
stituted. In striking contrast, however, with 
these, is an order that has not known so well 



how to combine the labnra with the'ora, and was 
therefore abolished by Joseph II. as useless, but 
has been restored since his death: I allude to 
the order of Carmelite nuns, who claim for their 
sisterhood the distinction of being more ancient 
than any other in Christendom — Mary, Anne, 
Magdalen, and all the other holy women of the 
New Testament having belonged to it. The 
Carmelite monks assert that their order was ori- 
ginally founded by the prophet Elias on Mount 
Carm'el, in Palestine, and that all the prophets 
and holy men, from Elias to Christ, had belonged 
to the ot^er. In the proud feeling of a piety 
ennobled by such unsurpassed antiquity, and 
by their connection wjth so many saints and 
prophets, the Carmelites seclude themselves 
with greater strictness than any other order 
from the profane world; subject themselves to 
severer rules, and hold themselves to be entirely 
dispensed from the duty of doing any thing for 
the benefit of the rest of their fellow-creatures. 
Joseph II. closed the convents belonging to this 
order in Prague and in other parts of his domi- 
nions, and sent the Carmelite nuns back into 
the world. The nuns, however, even after leav- 
ing their convents, continued, as well as they 
could, to observe the rules of their order, lodged 
generally two or three together, held little or no 
intercourse with the world, and lived on alms 
and on the work of their hands. When the 
Emperor Leopold heard this, he was moved by 
the tale, and made over to them the Barnabite 
convent on the Hradshin, where the Carmehte 
nuns have immured themselves, and shut out 
the rest of the world, according to Their ancient 
fashion. 

These Carmelite nuns never allow any but 
the meagrest food to pass their lips; they pray 
night and day, and sleep but little. They never 
sleep on any other bed but naked boards, and 
their only pillow is a stone. They wear a hair- 
cloth garment next the skin, and sometimes an 
iron chain, by way of girdle, with sharp prongs, 
that run into their flesh. Into the interior of 
their convent no living creatttl-e of the male sex 
is allowed to penetrate, and yet there are among 
them many delicate and young girls. Sucli was 
the account I generally heard of them at Prague, 
together with a multitude of marvellous and 
mysterious particulars. My cariosity was there- 
fore excited, and I determined 'to penetrate, as 
far as I could, into the mysterious recesses of 
the community, and to obtain for myself some 
authentic information on the subject. It was a 
monk of the convent of Straholl' who lent me 
his aid and advice. He described to me a door 
of the nunnery where I might knock, and to the 
woman who came to inquire what I wanted, he 
bade me say, I M-as a stranger who wished to 
see the holy Mary Electa. This Mary Electa, 
it seems, is the weak point of the Carmelites, 
who are veiy proud of having her among them, 
and seldom refuse a stranger the favour of pay- 
ing his devotions to her. " But, reverend father," 
I replied, " I am a Protestant, so I hope I shall 
not be called on to kiss the hands or feet of the 
saint, or to affect to pray at her shrine." " You 
will be asked no questions about your religion; 
but as I tell you, there is no other way by which 
}^ou can obtain admittance." 

I went accordingly, found the door to which 



32 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



I had been .directed, and knnclccd. The door 
was opened, and in a small veslil)nle I sa\r an 
elderly woman, who bcl()n'j;ed to the domestic 
attendants of the convent, and who asked me 
what it was I wanted. I replied, as I had been 
taught, that I was a stranger, and wished to see 
tlie lioly mother, Maria Electa. 

In the wall, opposite to the door, was a small 
opening, and in this opening was a kind of per- 
pendicular valve, that turned round, and through 
which small matters might be passed in and 
out of the convent. Here the attendant knocked, 
and shortly afterwards, a low voice was heard 
to inquire what was wanted. "It is' ^ stranger, 
venerable sister, who wishes to see our holy 
mother, Maria Electa, and requests the keys of 
the chapel." " Yes, yes," was the. reply, and in 
a few minutes a heavy biuich of Iceys fell into 
one of the compartments of the pcipendicular 
valve, the old woman who acted as my guide, 
took the keys, and we proceeded to the chapel. 
I saw nothing very remarkable in the chapel, on 
entering, except an iron railing near the altar, 
behind wbii'h r.iiling some black object appeared 
to be movin'; alu'iH. "What is that?" I asked. 
" Behind tliai railing," answered my guide, " sits 
our mother, Maria Electa, and one of our ve- 
nerable sisters is now oi)ening the shrine, that 
you may see it the better. Wait here a moment, 
and — " But I did not wait. On the contrary, I 
hastened up to the railing, which consisted of 
thick iron bars, and in the gloom behind them, 
I saw a nun closely veiled, who was kneeling 
before an old, brown, dried up mummy, kissing 
its hands a(jd feet, and repeating one prayer 
after another. The mummy was the Maria 
Electa whom I was supposed to come in search 
of. She sat upon a richly ornamented throne, 
and was adorned with a profusion of lace and 
tinsel. She was surrounded by a glass case, 
which the nun had opened, that I might see the 
better. The holy sister had been somewhat 
long over her work, or I had been somewhat 
quick; but at all events, I found, in spite of the 
severe rules of the Carmelite order, that it Avas 
very possible for a young man to find himself 
tete-Ji-tete with a nun, and to converse with her 
with even less reserve than is often imposed by 
tlie etiquette of the great world. 

"Excuse me, venerable sister," said I, ad- 
dressing her; "Is that the Maria Electa!" 

" Praise be to Jesus Christ!" she replied, after 
a few moments, and after she had completed her 
prescribed number of kisses and prayers; " Yes, 
this is our dear, holy, revered mother, Maria 
Electa!" 

The nun was now standing upright before 
me, and though she Avas wrapped in a thick 
woollen garment, and her face Avas covered 
with a close black Avoollen veil, yet her form 
appeared to me handsome and graceful. Her ; 
voice Avas remarkably soft; indeed, she seoned \ 
to breathe and lisp, rather than to speak. This | 
was at first pleasmi^, lill I afterwards ohserred | 
that all the C;u-nieljii\s have the same stift, lisp- j 
dtiiig voice, Avith a kind of senrinicnlal ] 



mg. 



all 



whine while spcalcing, the et 
quired (V^itn flii'ir cnMstant praying. 

In ihis sni'ily lire;i|i,,ng \-()iee the nun told me 
the A\-bolr hisinry nl' M;iria Electa. "She was 
the principal of our oider two hundred years 



ago, and her pioixs and holy life will never allow 
us to forget her. Heaven has miraculously 
preserved for us her cherished frame, which 
continues uncorrupted. She is just as she Avas 
when living. Her hands, arms, and fingers are 
still quite pliant. Our holy father the Pope Avill 
theretbre probably canonize her, which has not 
yet been done." 

"You wish that he should do so, I supposel" 

"Oh certainly, Ave wish it very much; and 
indeed the business has already been taken in 
hand. Should we succeed, it Avould be to the 
honour and to the profit of our couA'ent. We 
have printed the history of Maria, and I will 
give you a copy of the book." 

With that she handed me a little book, which 
I squeezed Vvith some difliculty between the 
bars, and observed at the same time that her 
hand Avas exijuisitely AAdiite and delicate. My 
imagination immediately pictured to me a coun- 
tenance equally pleasing, and in harmony with 
the softness and melody of her voice. I began 
to relate of the other saints and churches that I 
had seen, and of my oAvn erratic manner of life. 
She listened to me AA'ith evident interest, and I 
indulged her the more Avillingly, that I might 
have a right, in my turn, to question her a little 
about her customary^ way of living. 

"Oh, oirr life," said she, "is glorious, for it is 
devoted to praying to God. I have been here 
noAv for five years. I was born in Styria, and 
Avhen I declared my determination to enter a 
convent, my parents Avished me to choose one 
of the less severe orders. But I preferred the 
Carmelites to every other, for only those who 
renounce the world altogether, can belong alto- 
gether to Heaven. I readily submitted to the 
strict noviciate of three years, to VA'hich all must 
submit AvhoAvish to be received as sisters of our 
order. During this time Ave must pass through 
several ordeals, one of Avhich is to abstain for 
a Avhole year from all speech, save to God and 
his saints. Even our sisters, during this year, 
speak to us only b)' signs, and that as seldom as 
possible. Those Avho, during these three years, 
have not constantly nianifested a joyful devotion 
to their severe task, are not received into the 
order. Those Avho, before the expiration of the 
time, feel their resolution fail them, may retire, 
for Ave Avish to have none for our sisters but 
such as freely and zealously long to renounce* 
the Avorld, that they may dcA^ote themselves to 
prayer, and to a communion with the saints. 
Nor is any alloAA-ed to talce the voavs before her 
24th year, for Avhen the voavs have once been 
taken, all return to tlie Avorld is impossible." 

From these premises, I calculated the age of 
my informant to be under thirty. A pretty age! 
thought I, and a marvellously long Avay offirom 
that total benumbing of the fliesh, which I ob- 
served in the third personage to our interview, 
the Mother Electa, Avho saf enthroned in her 
glass case. I inquired AAdiether there Avere any 
novices at present in the house. 

"Yes, four; and there are sixteen sisters of 
us." 

t^ixteen marvellous, romantic, and very me- 
iaiicli.ily perversions of mind, tliought I; a state 
n{' i!iiii'.:-.(.l' whose existence, at this tinieof day, 
111 i>iy of I in Cold Northerns Avill find it hard to 
I'oriu u \-Qiy cicar couceplion. 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



"As sisters too," she resumed, "we lead a»life 
of constant self-denial, such as to you, no doubt, 
■rt-ill seem very hard. Seven hours a day we 
invariably spend in prayer, besides which, on 
certain liolidays, we have prayers and masses 
to chaunt at midnight. During the day we sel- 
dom speak to one another, and only in the morn- 
ing and^vening we have one hour of recreation. 
During these two hours we visit each other, and 
converse together. We make and mend our 
own clothes, and attend to other work in the 
convent, endeavouring to do as much of it as 
possible with our own hands. 

"Is it true," I asked, ''that you Wear nothing 
but this coarse gannentof wool or hair!" 

"This is the only garment we wear, and our 
food is equally simple. Meat we never touch, 
but only vegetables, and fish, dressed either with 
oil or butter, and water is our only drink; but 
we are cheerful and contented, and it never oc- 
curs to us to covet any thing beyond that. We 
sleep on straw, and a sack of straw serves us 
for a pillow. ■ Some of its, however, impose, at 
times, additional hardships on themselves. They 
will sleep, for instance, on the naked boards, or 
will save a portion of their scanty meals, and 
send it out to the poor in the world, or they will 
pass whole nights in prayer. In these exercises 
we often emulate each other, and think we can- 
not carry them too far; for, indeed, how can we 
hope sufficiently to chastise and mortify our sin- 
ful flesh?" 

Good God! thought I; and these sacrifices, 
these ordeals, are imposed in a house sur- 
rounded by sumptuous palaces, and in the very 
centre of a populous luxurious cit}'. Almost 
unconsciously I exclaimed — "But why do you 
not rather choose to live in some remote soli- 
tude, in some gloomy forest, or on some black 
heathl" 

"It would indeed be better," resumed my nun, 
with her accustomed sweetness of voice, "and 
we would much prefer it, but we cannot remove 
the convent that has been assigned to us, and 
are not rich enough to build one in a more suit- 
able place. Besides, we may live here as else- 
where, free from all commerce with the world, 
happy and cheerful, in perfect concord, and de- 
voted to God, and to friendslup for each other." 
At this moment there arose before my mind's 
e3'e,one of those crooked little black things that 
ask questions, and I began to think, that before 
my informant persuaded me of the cheerfulness 
and perfect concord of her little community, it 
would be necessary for her to admit me a little 
more behind the curtain. "And you M'ere right 
in your doubts," said a friend to me afterwards; 
"the concord, I am sorry to say, is not such as 
might be expected to prevail among beings de- 
voted to such constant exercises of piety. In- 
trigues and cabals are of constant occurrence in 
this liUle state within the state, particularly on 
the occasion of electing their principal, who is 
chosen anew every third year." 

My geiule Carmelite, however, unconscious of 
my doubts, continued in the same strain, "Oh, 
you cannot imagine how happily, bow blissful))^, 
we live here, without a wish or a want [p gratify. 
It is only rules so severe as ours that make it 
possible to enjoy heaven already upon earth," 
Thus saying, she closed the glass case of Maria 



Electa, after she had once more kissed the hand 
of the witheied mummy, and praying God to 
have me in his keeping, she withdrew into the 
interior of the convent. Through the open 
door I discerned a long passage, and at the 
end of it a small piece of ground planted with 
trees, the only place whence these poor crea- 
tures are ever able to gaze upon God's heaven. 
God be v\-ith thee, poor girl, thought I, as the end 
of her garment vanished round the corner, how 
grievous makest thou life to thyself! and yet has 
not the Lord himself said — "My yoke is soft and 
my burden is light!" and then I thought of the 
many faitliful, pious mothers that I had known 
without the convent walls, living a life of godli- 
ness, and of daily usefulness to their fellow- 
creatures. 

The great charm which convents, particularly 
nunneries, have for us, lies in the nature of the 
vows taken by those who retire there, and partly 
in the unusualness of character and fortune 
which we presume in the inmates. Another 
cause of the great interest we take in these in- 
stitutions, is the mystery which surrounds them. 
This charm, so irresistible to a sober Protestant, 
attracted me once more to the Carmelites, but 
this time in company with a lady of rank of 
Prague, who went to pay a visit to the principal 
or Oberhi Aloysia. We were received in the 
parlour, which is separated into two divisions 
by a double grating, such as is placed in all 
Carmelite convents before every window or 
opening through which the profane world might 
look into the dwelling of the holy sisters. Be- 
hind this grating hung a dark curtain which was 
rolled up, and presented to us the pi'incipal, and 
another nun, who had preceded her in otfice. 
Both were closely veiled, and my imaginatioa 
was left at liberty to embellish them with end- 
less charms, of the existence of which I was 
not allowed to obtain any more satisfactory evi- 
dence. My companion offered indeed to ask the 
principal to unveil, and expressed a conviction 
that the request would be complied with; but I 
prayed her, on no account to do so, for I feared, 
I scarce know why, l^e dissipation of those 
agreeable illusions in which I had been in- 
^Iging. 

My two visits convinced me, at all events, that 
the CaWielites did not live in such complete 
seclusion from the world as I have been told. 
The principal keeps up friendly relations with 
many ladies in Prague, receives visits from 
them, and accepts trilling presents. Nor do I 
believe, in spite of the assurances of my first in- 
formant, that they -would at all like to remove 
into a wilderness. They do not see the world, 
indeed, but it is something to know that the 
world is about them, and though they imagine 
they have renounced every feeling of vanity, 
still it is necessary to them to know themselves 
admired for their "self-denial. They place their 
sohtude among the princely palaces of the 
Hradshin, as Diogenes placed his tub opposite 
to the palaces of the Athenians. The palaces 
that he despised were as necessary to his self- 
importance as to the pomp of Pericles and Alci- 
biades. Had the Athenians all taken to living in 
tubs, Diogenes would have soon found his way 
back into a decent house; and in the same way, 
I am convinced, the Carmelites would not be 



34 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



long in knocking away their gratings, if they 
•were to hear one fine morning that all the fine 
ladies in Prague liad immured themselves. 

In Vienna, the Carmelite nuns have not been 
able to re-establish themselves since the days of 
JosepI;, any more than the Jesuits. The latter, 
however, are tolerated in several of the provin- 
cial cities of Austria. Prague has, indeed, far 
more convents and religious orders than Vienna, 
or than any other city in the Emperor's domi- 
nions. It would be much more easy to enume- 
rate the orders that are not to be found in the 
Bohemian capital, than to coimt all the varieties 
of religious habits and uniforms that one en- 
counters in every street. 

It would be an interesting thing perhaps to 
observe all these monks in their cells, but we 
satisfied ourselves with a visit to the most im- 
portant of them, the white Premonstrants of the 
monastery of Strahof, which contains one of the 
most celebrated hbraries in Bohemia. This 
convent, whose real name is Strasha, which the 
Germans have corrupted into Strahof, was 
founded in 1140, or only twenty years after an 
angel had shown to St. Norbert, near Coucy in 
France, the field on which he was to build the 
first convent of the order. In the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries, the order possessed two 
thousand monasteries. At present the number 
does not exceed one hundred, of which that of 
Strahof is probably by far the most wealthy. 

Like all the Prachtkloster, or convents on a 
large scale in Austria, Strahof is only partially 
finished. The church is in a ruinous condition, 
and oilers a painful contrast to the magnificence 
of the interior of the library. The beneficial 
effects of this library must be inestimable, if all 
the pious texts and moral precepts with which 
its walls and columns are so liberally inscribed, 
have not only served as architectonic decora- 
tions, but have, at the same time, been duly 
impressed upon the hearts of the monks. 

The library contains fifty thousand volumes, 
arranged with exemplary order and elegance, 
which would be the more gratifying if there 
were not so kw bees to collect the honey from 
so fair a garden. The thirty monks of the co% 
vent can enjoy but a small portion of the rich 
sweets consigned to their keeping, and the 
channels through which their fertilizmg in- 
fluence might be made to flow over a wider 
space, require the bold hand of another Joseph 
to open them. Ziska, who preached in the name 
of Huss, and baptized with fire where Huss had 
come armed only with water, — Ziska whose 
name next to that of Joseph 11., is oftenest heard 
in Bohemian monasteries, instead of setting the 
garnered sweets free for the benefit of mankind, 
would have stopped them up altogether, for he 
destroyed the monastery of Strahof as he had 
destroyed many others before. At present, bow- 
ever, his wild one-eyed countenance hansfs in 
the picture gallery at Strahof, along with a mul- 
titude of other historical portraits; indeed [ have 
found the picture of this puller down of castles 
and convents, occupj-ing a prominent and ho- 
nourable place in the collections of the many 
Bohemian convents and castles that I have had 
occasion to visit; and those who, if he were 
still living, would move heaven and earth to 
bring him to the gallows, now that he is net 



likely to do them any more mischief, appear to 
be not a little proud of the privilege of counting 
such a dare-devil among their compatriots. 



THE JEWS' QUARTER. 

The Jewish community of Prague, boasts of 
being the most numerous and most ancient of 
the Austrian monarchy, and indeed of all Ger- 
ma.ny. It consists of 10,000 individuals, so that 
it comprises about one-tenth of the whole popu- 
lation of the city. In the Galician cities only 
are the Jews sometimes fomid in a greater 
proportion. In Vienna, on the contrary, they 
amount only to one-fifth of the number resident 
in Prague, and if the greater population of Vi- 
enna is taken into account, the Jews of the 
Bohemian stand in numerical proportion to 
tliose of the Austrian capital, as twenty to one. 
All Bohemia is said to contain about 70,000 
Jews; one-seventh of the whole, therefore, have 
their domiciles in Prague. All Bohemia con- 
tains four millions of inhabitants; consequently, 
every sixtieth man in Bohemia is a Jew, and in 
the capital every tenth. There are Austrian 
provinces in which no Jews are to be met with. 
These are Austria above the Ens, Styria, Ca- 
rinthia, and Carniola. In the last-named pro- 
vince, within a few years, ten Jews have 
established themselves. In Styria one solitary 
Israelite is said to hold his residence. 

In the whole of the Austrian states there are 
at present 652,000 Jews; more than one-third of 
the whole, 265,000, being included within Aus- 
trian Poland, and nearly as many, 260,000, in 
Hungar_y. About one-sixth, or 1 1 0,000, inhabit 
Bohemia and Moravia, and the remainder are 
distributed in small portions, over the remaining 
provinces of the empire. Thus, in Transylva- 
nia there are 3,500; in Tyrol, 1,900; in Dalmatia, 
500; in Lombai dy, 2,000; in Venetian Lombardy, 
4,000; in the Military Frontier, 400, &c. Hence 
it would seem, that in ancient times, the Slavo- 
nians and Magyars must have been most tolerant 
to the Israelites, while the Germans and Italians 
must alwaj's have been less willing to admit 
them as residents. The purely German pro- 
vinces of Austria contain only 5,000 Jews, the 
purely Italian only 7,000; whereas in those pro- 
vinces in which the Slavonian and Magyar 
elements of population preponderate, the Jews 
number no less than 620,000. Moreover, in the 
German and Italian provinces, the Jews are 
yearly decreasing in numbers, although the 
population generally is increasing; in Hungary, 
on the oliier hand, the Je\vs are increasing at a 
far more rapid ratio than any other class of the 
population. 

The other question, that -which refers to the 
antiquity of the Hebrew conimiinily at Prague, 
will be less easy to solve; indeed, so wide a 
range is therebetween different authorities, that 
there is a dift'erence of no less than a thousand 
years between the date assigned by one party, 
and that contended for by those of an opposite 
opinion. The Jews maintain that their settle- 
ment at Prague dates back at least to the year 
632 of the Christian era, that date being in- 
scribed upon the most ancient tombstone of 
their cemetery, while several tombstones are 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



still to be foimd inscribed with various dates 
from the 8th century. The Bohemians, how- 
ever, refuse to recos^nise the claim of the Jews, 
and deny the authenticity of the stone altogether. 
The Je\fs, they say, have occupied their present 
quarter only for a few centuries, having been 
removed to it, from the opposite side of the river, 
by the express command of one of the kings of 
Bohemia, who assigned to them the loc;ilitynow 
known under the name of Judenstudl, or Jews' 
Town. One Bohemian antiquary told me that 
tlie inscription in question referred probably to 
tlie year 1632, and not to 632, it being still usual 
in many parts of Austria to abridge dates by 
leaving out the first figure, and to say for in- 
stance, 841, in speaking of the year 1841. 

If the Jews are correct in their chronology, 
their community must have existed *as early as 
Uie reign of the celebrated Slavonian king, Samo, 
who united Bohemia and Morawia into a pow- 
erful Slavonian empire; nor would there beany 
thing very marvellous in supposing that this 
mighty sovereign, under whom commerce is 
known to have been actively carried on, should 
already have had Jews among his subjects. It 
is not, however, known in what part of his do- 
minions King Samo held bis residence, and it 
is only his successors Krok and Libussa to 
whom credit is given for having founded Prague. 
Nevertheless, according to Ptoloma^us, there is 
very little doubt that Marobudum, the ancient 
capital of the mighty Marbod and his Marko- 
mans, stood on the same spot on which Prague 
was afterwards built, in which case it is very 
likely that Samo ruled over the whole land from 
the banks of the Moldau. There would be no- 
tliing absurd therefore in supposing that the 
Jews may have dwelt for 1200 years where 
Prague now stands, even though we may not 
feel disposed to receive their tombstones as 
authentic evidence of the fact. Nay, it is quite 
possible, that Marbod himself, the cotemporary 
of Augustus, as he adopted so many things from 
tlie Romans, may, among other importations 
from Italy, have received a consignment of Jews 
for the supply of his city of Marobudum. A 
Hebrew colony may even have existed here at 
a still earlier period, when, previously to the 
Christian era, and before the invasion of the 
country by the Markomans, the Celtic sovereigns 
held their court in their antique capital Bubie- 
num, which must also have been situated very 
near to where Prague now stands, and probably 
on the spot now occupied by the village of Bu- 
bcnetz. In this way the Jews may have dwell 
in the country even before it was ruled either by 
Germans or Slavonians. 

\\'hether oi- no there be any foundation for 
Hiese speculations, it is not the less certain that 
the said Jewish cemetery has all the outward 
appearance of great antiquity, and belongs, as 
well as several of the synagogues, to the most 
interesting objects that a traveller can expect to 
look upon. 

The cemetery lies in tbe veiy heart of the 
Judensfdc/t, where it is encircled by buildings 
and narrow lanes.. Its form is very irregular 
winding, now broad and tben narrow, amid the 
houses that overtop its lofty wall. This very 
irregularity of form seems to speak in favour of 
the high aiuiquity of the place, to which, through 



succeeding centttries, a fragment seems now to 
have been added here, and now there. In the 
central part of the enclosed space, the tomb- 
stones are crowded together in a manner I never 
saw equalled anywhere else. Close to the wall, 
on the inside, is a footpath, and a man must' 
walk tolerably fast to be able to make the round 
in a quarter of an hour. The Jews do not, as 
we do, inter fresh corpses in graves vrhose for- 
mer tenants have mouldered into dust, but al- 
ways place their dead either over or by the side 
of each other. This practice occasions the as- 
tonishing accumulation of tombstones, of which 
I am sure there are several hundred thousand 
in this cemetery. They have all a family re- 
semblance, being four-cornered tablets with 
neatly-executed inscriptions. They stand liter- 
ally as closely together as ears in a cornfield. All 
are carefully preserved, though some have sunk 
more or less into the ground, so much so, that 
here and there you see a stone, of which only a 
small portion is still visible. The whole is 
overgrown with elder bushes, that stretch their 
knotty and confused branches from stone to 
stone. These elders are the only trees that 
grow there, and some of them seem to be nearly 
as old as the stones which they overshadow. 
The presence of the elder tree in burying-grounds 
is not, however, peculiar to this place, but pre- 
vails very generally throughout Bohemia. 

Here and there a small path winds among the 
thicket of tombstones and elder trees, and on 
following it you come to small elevated spaces 
of ground, that have been left unoccupied, and 
are now overgrown with grass. If I were a 
painter, and wished to paint a picture of the 
Resurrection, I must confess, I should choose 
one of these little grass-grown knolls in the 
Jewish cemetery of Prague for the scene, in 
preference to any other. I can imagine no more 
picturesque spot from which to contemplate so 
vast a spectacle, and I wonder, when we have 
so many pictures of the celebrated burying- 
ground at Constantinople, that our artists should 
not also have taken that of the Jews at Prague 
as a subject for their pencils. 

The inscriptions are nearly all in Hebrew. 
Nowhere did I see a Bohemian inscription, and 
only here and there, on a stone of comparatively 
modern date, has the German language been 
used. The year is always at the top. The 
tombs of those of Aaron's race are distinguished 
by two hands graven into the stone, and those 
of the Levites by a pitcher, .to mark the ofiice of 
the latter to pour water on the hands of the for- 
mer, Avhen performing their ablutions in the 
temple. 

The descendants of Aaron never visit the 
cemeterj' during their lives. Any contact with, 
or even a near approach to, a dead body, is a 
pollution for them. They may not, therefore, 
remain in a house in which a dead body is lying. 
There is but one exception made to this law, 
namely, when the father of an Aaronite dies, in 
which case the son may rome within three ells 
of the body, and follow it to the burying-ground, 
till within three ells of a grave. The Jewish 
lat^'s evep prescribe the distance at which an 
Aaronite must keep when passing a bur}-ing- 
ground, which distance, however, is not calcu- 
lated from the outer wall, but from the nearest 



36 



Kf)HL'S AUSTRIA. 



grave. Now, in Prague, it happens that one street 
passes close to this Vail, and that just in this spot 
the graves not only reach up to the very wall, 
but that some are even supposed to lie under 
tlie pavement of the street. This would, con- 
.Sequently.be a forbidden roadtoeveiy Aaronite, 
had not particular arrangements been made to 
provide a remedy. This has been done by un- 
dermining that part of the street, and the empty 
vaulted space thus obtained,;prolects the Aaron- 
ite against pollution, for, according to the law, 
one hiuidrcd ells of vaulted space, are deemed 
equal to one thousand filled with solid earth. 

Here, as in every other Jewish cemetery, a 
piece of ground has been set apart for the in- 
terment of children stillborn, or of premature 
birth. In the coarse of time, this portion of the 
cemetery has grown into a hill or mound, eighty' 
paces long, ten paces broad, and twelve feet 
high. Ephel is the Hebrew word for a child 
•whose life does not extend beyond the fourth 
week, and Ephel is the name given by the Jews 
to this mound formed of infantine remains. 
Close to this Ephel are situated some old houses 
that seem to be on the point of falling in. They 
are propped up by beams resting on the Ephel; 
thus the mouldering bones of deceased infants 
lend their support, perhaps, to the tottering dwel- 
ling-places of their living parents. 

When, some sixty years ago, the Emperor 
Joseph prohibited all future interments within 
the walls of the city, the Jews had purchased a 
small piece of land, and consecrated it as an 
addition to their cemetery. Having once been 
consecrated, though not one body has been in- 
terred there, the ground has become holy, and 
may not be sold again; but though it may not 
be sold, it may be let for hire, and accordingly 
a dealer in wood has become the tenant, and 
uses the place as a depot for his merchandise. 
The whole cemetery, since Joseph's time, has 
been only an interesting piece of antiquity, still 
no portion of it can be sold or built upon. 

The Hebrew community of Prague enjoys a 
high reputation among all tlie Jews of Central 
Europe, and many celeb ;> ted Hebrew scholars, 
many distinguished women, and many eminent 
merchants and bankers, rest within its cenietery. 
The community of Prague may even be looked 
on as the parent hive, Avhence many an enter- 
prising swarm departed for the colonization of 
Poland and Hungary, and I had subsequent 
opportunities of satisfying myself of the influ- 
ence which a Jew irom Prague is able, even at 
the present day, to "exercise among his co-reli- 
gionaries of Hungary. 

In the cemetery of Prague, many a grave is 
pointed out to the stranger as that of a man 
high in renown among those of his own na- 
tion. Among others,! was called on to admire 
the beautifully-sculptured monument of a fair 
Jewess, who had risen to be a lady of high rank, 
the wife of a Avealthy Polish Count, 'i'liere 
were several tombs which, I was told, belonged 
to Levites and Rabbis of high fame and distinc- 
tion, and to one my attention was directed, as 
that of a youth who died some centuries ago, at 
the early age of eighteen. This youth had been, 
even in childhood, they told me, a miracle of 
learning, wisdom, beauty, and virtue. God had 
endowed him with the most pleasing qualities, 



and Jehovah's spirit hovered unceasingly over 
the boy'^ head. He was too virtuous, however, 
for this world, and his Creator therefore called 
him away in his eighteenth year. At his death 
there were signs and miracles, and the heavens 
were obscured. The King of Bohemia who then 
reigned, observing this , sent over to the other side 
of the river to demand of the wise men among 
the Jews, the cause of this sudden darkness, and 
was informed, in reply to his interrogatories, 
that an angelic soul had just departed from the 
earth. 

One tomb, erected early in the last century, 
was pointed out to me as that of a wealthy and 
benevolent Israelite of the name of Meissel. 
He had inherited nothing from his father, and 
continued, till death, to be a dealer in old iron. 
He lived in the same modest and parsimonious 
manner as the majority of his nation; but with 
the money that he was thus able to save, he 
built the Jewisli council-house at Prague, and 
four sjmagogues. Six streets were paved at his 
expense, and sixty poor people were weekly fed 
by him. No one knew whence his money came, 
or where he concealed it, but it was supposed 
that he had found a quantity of gold among some 
old iron that he had accidentally purchased. 

At present, the Jewish cemetery, like most 
old ruins or deserted places, serves as a refuge 
to a number of thieves and deserters, who are 
often able to conceal themselves for a long time 
among the bushes and tombs. Among the im- 
mediately adjacent houses are an asylum for 
j'oung children, an infirmary, and an hospital. 
For the accommodation of the children a door- 
way has been broken through the wall, and a 
small unoccupied space of the cemetery has 
been assigned to them as a playground, where 
a shed with benches and tables has been erected 
for their use. I own, when I saw the little crea- 
tures spoiling about in their little corner of a 
church-yard, and frolicking among the closely- 
crowded gravestones, I could not help asking 
myself what influence such a playground was 
likely to exercise over the future development 
of their minds. They were plucking wild flow- 
ers from the graves, and wreathing them into 
garlands. There were many pale, meagre, help- 
less little creatures among them; and, as I looked 
on them, I could not but think of the different 
fate of the little favourites of fortune, whose 
first tottering steps are made among flowery 
parterres, or over the lawn of a pai'k. A sin- 
gular contrast to this scene presented itself Avhen 
I visited the infirmary, where I found a number 
of aged creatures of both sexes, who had com- 
pletely sunk into the helplessness of a second 
infancy. Among them Avas a Jewess more than 
a. hundred years old, who had been bedridden 
for years. She lay crooked, blind, and almost 
motionless, more like a vegetable than an animat- 
ed being, and the only sign of life manifested by 
her, was an occasional whining sound. About 
forty old men and women were coughing, hob- 
bling, and groaning around us. I was accom- 
panied by a man of some consideration in the 
community. He was saluted by the inmates of 
the house in a completely oriental style. They 
came tottering up to him, kissed his garment, 
addressed hira over and over again by the title 
of " Gracious Master," and wished him long 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



37 



life, health, and the blessing of God. Man}^ of 
these poor people had nothing in this institution 
but a rude couch in a very uninviting corner of 
a room; yet they were unceasing in their pro- 
fessions of gratitude, for the mercies vouchsafed 
to them, though there seemed to me to be little 
about the house deserving of commendation 
except the fact of its existence. I shuddered 
Tvlieii I thought how wretched must be the dens, 
to be rescued from which, was calculated to 
call forth such warm expressions of thankful- 
ness. In fact, I believe, that in the Jews' quarter 
of Prague, many a human being breathes forth 
his spirit among scenes of such heart-rending 
wretchedness that even an infirmary, such as 
that I was now visiting, may still deserve to be 
deemed a beneficent institution, entitling its 
founders and supporters to the thanks and es- 
teem of every truly benevolent mind. Would 
that they were more powerfully seconded in 
their humane endeavours, that they might re- 
deem a larger share from the floods of misery 
with which the Judenstadt of Prague is at pre- 
sent overflowing! 

What a vast extent of moral desolation there 
must still exist in this cily, was made evident 
to me by the case of a liuman being whom I 
saw in this infirmary. He \yas a boy that had 
been found wandering about the streets of 
Prague. He appeared to me to be between ten 
and twelve years old. He was taken up by the 
police in the streets, a wild little creature, and 
unable to speak or understand any language. 
He was handed over to the Jewish magistrates, 
who placed him in the infirmary, after having 
vainly endeavoured to find a clue to the child's 
family. The name of Lebel Kremsier was given 
him. We found him crouching in a corner be- 
tween a window and a large chest. " He is wild 
and ungovernable," said the superintendent of 
the house; " and though I have beaten him for 
it repeatedly, he will sometimes jump like a cat 
out of the window, and go hiding among the 
bushes and gravestones yonder. His delight is 
to hunt the cats, and if he catches them he kills 
them. His limbs are powerful, and his teeth 
remarkably strong and sharp. So saying, the 
man pulled open the boy's mouth, and showed 
us his teeth, much in the same way that a show- 
man at a fair would have exposed the tusks of 
some M'ild animal. " He will eat as much as 
two grown men," continued the superintendent, 
'but he is not at all dainty, swallowing indiffer- 
ently every kind of food ollered him. Sometimes 
he is more than usually wild, and then he is 
iangerous, biting and scratching all who come 
near him; me, however, he never ventures to 
ittack. He says nothing, and if any one speaks 
to him, he merely repeats the words, like an in- 
listinct echo." The countenance of the child 
was regularly formed, and his eyes were full of 
animation. I said to him, " What is your namel" 
and he replied only by imperfectly articulating 
the two last words, " your name." " Why have 
^'ou no trowsers onl" said I. "No — trow — on," 
was the echo that answered to my interrogatory. 
'Lebel Kremsier, are you not cold?" "Old," 
was the sound with which he replied. While he 
was thus repeating my words, his face was dis- 
torted by a kind of smile or grin that seemed to 



tremble over his features. I attributed this to 
embarrassment; but my guide told me it was 
the effect of mere terror, and then, lor the first 
time, I observed that the whole body of the child 
was trembling. After I had passed on, I looked 
back, and saw that he still sat cowering, trem- 
bling, and grinning. 

In desolate places, among forests or marshes, 
such wild abandoned beings have sometimes 
been found; but how it was possible fof a wretch- 
ed creature lilce Lebel Kremsier t-o grow up in 
a populous city, is a riddle I am unable to solve. 

There are no less than twenty Jewish Bessa 
Medercsh, or houses of instruction, besides eight 
temples, the greater part of which are in the 
immediate vicinity of the cemetery. The oldest 
and most interesting is that called the Allneu- 
schalc, whose internal arrangements interested 
me the more, as the ancient style of the archi- 
tecture, and the order of divine service still 
observed there, afforded me an opportunity of 
instituting a comparison with the reformed sys- 
tem of worship which is making rapid way 
among the modern Jews, and has already taken 
firm root at Prague, where it threatens to drive 
the old synagiigues and the old schools com- 
pletely out of the field. I scarcely believe that 
there is any thing like the Altneuschule of Prague 
to be found, at the present day, in any other part 
of Germany. 

The outside of this synagogue looks like one 
of those old warehouses that ma}' still be seen 
in some of our German cities, that have under- 
gone but little change since the middle ages. 
Within, the dust, diit, glooin, and smojiiness of 
the whole place, remind one of a catacomb. 
From the ceiling hangs a large flag, so large in- 
deed, that it extends the whole length of the sy- 
nagogue. This flag was given to the Jews by 
Ferdinand III., after the termination of the thirty 
years' war, for the patriotism and'gallantry they 
had displayed when Prague was besieged by 
the Swedes in the last year of the war. During 
this siege, all the citizens of Prague, even the 
students, the Jesuits, and the monks, had fought 
bravely on the walls, and had even made seve- 
ral sorties to attack the besiegers. In reward 
for their gallant behaviour, the emperor con- 
ferred the honour of knighthood on a number of 
the citizens, including all the city councillors, 
in addition to which, various honours and im- 
munities were conferred on several of the cor- 
porations and convents. 

The Eiorus Nashim (that portion of the syna- 
gogue set apart for the women) is partitioned 
off from the body of the temple by a wall a foot 
and a half in thickness. A narrow staircase, 
such as maybe seen behind the scenes of a low 
theatre, serves as the only means of access for 
the women. In the narrow passages surrounded 
by walls, they have their chairs. At regular m- 
tervals there are in the walls certain rents or 
apertures, about an ell in length and an inch in 
breadth, and through these narrow holes comes 
all that the female members of the congregation 
are allowed to hear of the word of God. Here 
they crowd together, looking and listening down 
into the temple, through an opening that would 
be abundantly small for one of them, if she had 
it all to herself. " They will hear but little there," 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



I observed to the Israelite lA'ho conducted me 
down the stairs. " Oh, quite enough for women," 
was his ungallant repl}^ 

On the tribune, in the centre of the syna- 
gogue, stood an old rabbi and preached. His 
listeners crowded around the tribune, and some 
had even intruded upon the tribune itself. Close 
before the preacher sat a white-haired old man, 
who ajipeared to be hard of hearing, and stretch- 
ed forth his ear in the ellbrt to catch the words 
of the speaker. Near him was a crowd of boys. 
The preacher was not, as with us, confined 
within the limited space of a pulpit, but moved 
freely about from one side of the stage to the 
other. There -was much in this that would have 
been highly indecorous to our Protestant no- 
tions. As far as grouping and outward form 
are concerned, a highly interesting daguerreo- 
type picture might have been furnished by the 
assembled congregation; but, however loudly the 
preacher vociferated, the spirit that should have 
given warmth and life to his discourse was alto- 
gether wanting. His discourse was the strangest 
medley of German and Hebrew that I had ever 
heard. Every text from the Bible was first given 
in Hebrew, and then translated into German. 
At one moment the speaker would be comment- 
ing upon Nebuchadnezzar, then upon the de- 
struction of Jerusalem by Titus; then again he 
would enlarge upon the false lights of modern 
times, to elucidate which he would skip up the 
vhole ladder of history to the days of Adam. 

The changes introduced into their temples of 
late years by the more enlightened Israelites, 
have altered none of the essential parts of divine 
service. Which, in spirit and form, remains pre- 
cisely such as it is prescribed by the ancient 
law. It is only the innovations, that had crept 
in during the course of time, that have been re- 
formed; and jn complying with the letter of the 
law, they have endeavoured to avoid, as much 
as possible, whatever is calculated to offend the 
enlightenment of modern times. Thus, in the 
reformed Jewish temples, the women still con- 
tinue to be separated from the men; but by open 
railings, and not by thick M'alls. The ancient 
hymns have been retained: but they are more 
carefully performed, and a suitable choir of 
singers is maintained for the purpose. The doc- 
trine of the sermon may be also little altered; 
but some oratorical ability is looked for in the 
preacher, who is expected to cultivate a purer 
style, and to refrain from a perpetual repetition 
of Hebrew quotations. 

It was in Berlin and Hamburg that the first 
associations were formed among the Jews, with 
a view to bring about these reforms, and the 
exanrple Avas soon followed in every part of 
Germany. In Prague, about a hundred men 
joined together, built a new synagogue, and 
sent a deputation to Berlin and Hamburg, to 
obtain more complete information res]iecting 
the refomied mode of worship, and to select a 
preacher of learning, piety, and oratorical 
ability. The first selection was not a fortunate 
one; for the new teacher obtained but little 
favour in the eyes of his flock. The second, 
Mr. Sax, who, like his predecessor, came from 
Berlin, has, however, become so popular, that 
even Protestants and (catholics will often go to 
hear him preach. I went to hear him on the 



day kept in commemoration of the destruction of 
Jerusalem by Titus; but, unfortunately, I arrived 
too late, the sermon being just over. The wo- 
men, like the men, were sitting in the lower 
space of the temple, with this difference only, 
that the men occupied the centre, and the women 
the side aisles. The choir was composed of a 
number of young men and ho3''s, in a black cos- 
tume, with small black velvet caps. As they 
sung, they were accompanied by a small organ, 
and the psalms had been rendered into a pure 
and well-written German version. 

The reform in the Jewish temple took root in 
Vienna somewhat sooner than in Prague, and 
is now extending its influence from these two 
centres to all the Hebrew communities of the 
Austrian empire. Schools, hospitals, and other 
institutions connected more or less with religion 
will not fail to be beneficially affected by the 
movement; which, indeed, they already feel, as 
I had subsequently more than one occasion to 
remaik. The Austrian government has tole- 
rated and even encouraged these reforms; the 
more readily, as they iiave not hitherto led to 
any religious cabals and dissensions. These 
indeed, the friends of reform and progress, are 
sedulous to avoid, and for that very reason they 
always protest against their being called or 
treated as a separate part}^ Nevertheless, some- 
thing like a feeling of aversion shows itself be- 
tween those of the old faith and the new. The 
Old Jews look upon their in::ovating brethren, 
however cautious these may be, as violators of 
the law, and murmur at their proceedings ac- 
cordingly; but if the reformers continue to ob- 
serve the same moderation, they will carry their 
whole nation with them in time. "Our chief 
rabbi, Rappoport, is an enlightened man," said 
one of the reformers to me, " and in his heart 
he is certainly on our side; but he must not 
quarrel with either side, and therefore does not 
choose to pronounce himself too openly against 
the old ones." 

This Mr. Rappoport is at present one of the 
most eminent and most highly-considered men 
in the whole community of Prague, though it is 
but lately that he arrived there, and that from 
Poland, a country in which no one can say that 
enlightenment has as yet made any great pro- 
gress among the Jews. He resided formerly at 
Tornopol, in Galicia, but his reputation for 
learning and liberality spread far and wide, and 
caused him, a few years ago, to be promoted to 
the post which he now holds. I went to pay 
my respects to him, and found him surrounded 
by a circle of learned scribes. 

The rabbis in this part of the world — I mean 
in Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary — continue to 
live after the fashion of the wise men of the 
East. They allow the light of their wisdom to 
shine upon the woild in a very different way 
from our learned philosophers of Europe, who, 
unless when addressing a respectfully listening 
auditory from the rostrum, are seldom accessi- 
ble to the multitude that stand so much in need 
of their instructions. Here the rabbis sit upon 
the open market-place, like the kings and judges 
in eastern lands, and in their houses they sit 
with open doors, ready to receive and answer 
all who come lor consolation or advice. This 
is particularly the case on the solemn festivals, 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



when the rabbis receive all who come to them, 
their dwellings beingf looked upon, app.arently, 
on those occasions, less as private houses, than 
as places of assembly for the whole congrega- 
tion. The wife and daughters are generally 
found in an ante-room, where they receive the 
guest, and usher him into the inner apartment, 
into the presence of the rabbi, who, arrayed in 
his pontificals, generally sits at the end of a long 
table, encircled by a numerous assemblage of 
visitors, strangers, and friends. 

It was thus that I found the chief rabbi, Rap- 
poporl, whose acquaintance I was desirous to 
make. He had not yet laid aside the costume 
of the Jews of Eastern Europe, and sat in his 
arm-chair in a black silk caftan and a high fur- 
red cap. Israelites from Magdeburg, from Ham- 
burg, I'rom Warsaw, and from Amsterdam, were 
sitting around him, and other visitors were con- 
stantly arriving and departing. Mr. Rappoport 
is an Aaronitc, a distinction that carries with it 
privileges far mure burdensome than profitable. 
Of one i-f these I have already spoken. Another 
is, that every newly-born cbiid is brought to an 
Aaronite that he may bless it. There are also 
some Levites at Prague, but they are less nume- 
rous than the Aaronites. The same is observed 
to be the case in all the other Jewish commu- 
nities of Europe; and this, I was told, was be- 
cause Cyrus, when he re-established Jerusalem, 
brpught back to Palestine a greater number of 
Aaronites than of Levites. 

Mr. Rappoport told us that the Jewish Cara- 
Ites of the Crimea and Turkey, had lately found 
a stone, from the inscriptions on which they 
sought to sliow the very remote antiquity of 
their sect; but that he had lately written an 
epistle to them to show that the stone could not 
be genuine, as it professed lo be dated from the 
r real ion of the world, at a time when that M-as 
imi the era by which the Israelites reckoned, 
la his letter he said, he had proved to the Cara- 
ites, that the era from which the Jews originally 
reckoned was the flight from Egypt, with which 
their political history commenced. This system 
of chronology they retained for about one thou- 
sand years, when they adopted the era of the 
Seleucidre, which prevailed among the Chal- 
deans, the Syrians, the Persians, and among 
mo* of the oriental nations. This system of 
computation was retained by the Jews till about 
five hundred years ago, when the creation of 
the world was adopted. 

Religion among the Jews fonns naturally a 
subject of constant and familiar conversation, 
as having been the element in which their po- 
litical and moral relations have at all times 
been developed. We were led to speak of the 
subject by an allusion to the cherub wings lately 
placed by the Israelites of Prague, over tl\e holy 
shrine of the tablets of the law. I observed that 
these wings appeared to me very incomplete 
withcmt the bodies of the angels. This they told 
me, one and all, was a remark that none but a 
Christian woirtd have thought of making; that 
to them such figures of angels would be an 
abomination, and that whene^-er they entered a 
Christian church, with its pictures and statues, 
tliey felt much as their forefathers must have 
felt" when they entered the temples of the hea- 
thens. 



From the rabbi's house my Jewish friends 
conducted me to their council-house, erected by 
the Israelite Meissel, of whom I have already 
spoken. In this' building is preserved the an- 
cient charter of the community, which has been 
signed and confirmed by each of the emperors 
and empresses of Austria. This charter is pre- 
served as an invaluable treasure, and yet I be- 
lieve the only privileges granted by it are such 
as peaceful subjects ought to enjoy, without re- 
quiring the security of the sign manual of their 
sovereigns — namely, the toleration of their reli- 
gion, and the permission to exist. From the 
turret of this council-house the whole Juden- 
studl may be surveyed, bounded on one side by 
water, and on the other by a row of Christian 
churches. From this turret maybe seen all the 
Jewish streets, swarming with beggars, and all 
the wretched roofs under which so many fonns 
of wretchedness creep for shelter. As I gazed 
on what I knew to be the scene of so much suf- 
fering, the words of the prophet Baruch came 
into my mind : 

1 Therefiire the Lord hatlJ'inKJe good his word, whiSi 
he proiioyiiced against us, and against our judges that 
judged Israel, and aaainst our kinas, and aeainst our 
pri fires, and against the men of Israel and Judah, 

2 To brina: upon us areal plagues, such as never hap- 
pened under (he whole heaven, as ii came to pass in Jeru- 
salem, according lo llie things that were wriueu iu the law 
of Moses; 

3 That a man should eat the flesh of his own son, and 
the tiesli id" hifi own daushter. 

4 Moreover he haih delivered them to be in subjection 
to all the kinid.Mns iliat are round about us, to be as a re- 
proach and des'ilaiion aiiinng all the people round about, 
where Uie 1,'ird liaih scattered them. 

5 riiud we were cast down, and not exalted, because W8 
have siiuipd acainsl ihe Lord our God, and have not been 
obedient uuio his voice 

BARUCH, chap. iL 

It is melancholy to think that this description 
has continued true through centuries, and ap- 
plies even at the present day to the condition of 
the Israelites in every hemisphere and in every 
land. 



POPULAR SCENES IN PRAGUE. 

The Austrians say of the Bohemians (that is 
to say, of the genuine Tshekhs), that they are 
incapable of abandoning themselves to any 
thing like a frank, cheerful gaiety, tneir temper 
being naturally gloomy and reserved, with a 
tendency towards melancholy. This judgment 
respecting the Bohemians is so universally 
adopted by the Austrians, that there must be 
some foundation for it, for there is always 
some truth in the sentence which one nation 
passes on another. We will not at present in- 
quire how the Austrians came to adopt such an 
opinion, for our business is at present rather 
with facts than speculations; and as far as the 
city of Prague is concerned, the manners of the 
people have been so decidedly Germanized, or 
rather Austrianized, that the provincial distinc- 
tions at which I have hinted are not likely to 
appear very evident to a stranger. A German 
arriving at Prague feels himself in an Austrian 
city; he hears everywhere the Anstro-German 
dialect; meets at every turn some specimen of 
Aitstrian goodhnmour; and in the popular scenes 
that present themselves to his notice, he will re- 



40 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



cosrnise the characteristic E^aiety of the humbler 
classes of Vienna; nor M'ill he, for some time, 
even detect the modifications Avhich the man- 
ners of Vienna have undergone in their trans- 
plantation to Prague. 

I was one day passing through the streets of 
the latter city, and saw a house-door standing 
open. Music and song were sounding from 
■within. I stopped, and saw in the courtyard a 
boy with a barrel-organ, playing a Bohemian 
Polka, and two pretty girls were waltzing along 
the hall and around the courtyard to the accom- 
paniment which chance had thus provided. 
Their dance was graceful and spirited, and I 
continued for some time to look at and enjoy 
the scene. As I went away, I endeavoured in 
vain to remember having ever seen the like, 
from the street, in any other great city. 

Another day I went to the Farberinael (Dyers' 
Island), to close the day agreeably by listening 
for a while to the evening music of the grena- 
diers. I came unfortunately, too late, lor before 
I reached the Speil garden, I met the band on 
fteir return. They jafUpfched along the broad 
road of the island, playing a lively air. This 
already pleased me. I had elsewhere seen mili- 
tary bands break up, but they went home singly; 
here they were marching homeward in military 
order, and giving one tune more for the benefit 
of the public. This made an agreeable im- 
pression on me. But now for the manner of 
their march. By their side went some five or 
six boys with torches, and in front of the band, 
along the broad level path of the promenade, 
some ten or twelve merry couples were dancing 
away lustily. The band were playing one of 
Strauss's waltzes. These dancers were not 
merely children, but grown people were among 
them, whirling and tripping, in frolicsome mood,, 
around the stiffly marching soldiers, like flowery 
garlands wreathing themselves around the huge 
trunk of some lirne-honoured monarch of the 
forest. The bearded grenadiers, meanwhile, 
seemed to enjoy the gaiety of their youthful at- 
tendants, and the more merrily these danced, 
the more lustily the others blew away. The 
young girls seemed indefatigable, for if one pair 
gave in, another was sure to issue from the ac- 
companying crowd, and join the dancers. Thus 
the march^procecded along the whole promenade, 
of the Farberinsel, and over the bridge which con- 
nects the island with the mainland, where the 
roughness of the pavement put an end to the 
ball. Here was another popular scene that I 
thought well worthy of being engraven on my 
memory, and I would fain have had a painter at 
hand, to preserve a copy of what afforded me ■ 
so much pleasure to look on. " This is really a 
remarkable scene," said I to my companion. 
"It is an every-day one here," was his reply. 

That the Bohemians are passionately fond of 
music, dance, and song, is undoubtedly true. 
So far as music is concerned, the world has long 
been aware of the fact, for Bohemian musicians 
are to be met with, not only in all parts of Eu- 
rope, but some have even wandered with the 
Russians into Siberia, to the very confines of the 
Chinese empire; others have of late years ac- 
companied the French to Algiers; andeven in 
Syria and Egypt Bohemian bands are listened 
to with pleasure. Of their fondness for dance 



and song I had daily opportunities of convincing 
myself "while at Prague. I met with dancers 
where T could never have expected them, and 
wdiere I should not have met with them in any 
other country; and song — ay. and m'cU executed 
—I was daily hearing from cellars, from ser- 
vants' halls, and upon the public street. As to 
music, not the lowest alehouse in the city is 
without it. 

These low alehouses again have quite a dif- 
ferent air from those of the large cities that 
border on Bohemia, — such as Dresden, Miuiich, 
Breslau, &c. Those of Prague have something 
more poetical about them. Let us enter for in- 
stance, one of the many beerhouses about the 
cattle-market of Prague. They consist mostly 
of large rooms or halls on the ground floor, and 
are nightly filled with merry guests. ITie en- 
trance is generally tastefully adorned with 
branches of fir or other evergreens, and the walls 
of the room are often tapestried in the same way. 
Here and there you may see some neat arbours 
fitted up in the courtyards, which are illuminated 
at night. Saturda\^, Sundays, and Mondays 
there is music in all these houses, and in many 
of them on the other days also, and music of so 
superior an order, that I often wondered where 
so niuch musical talent could come from. These 
itinerant orchestras of Bohemia, I was told, had 
much improved of late years, in consequence of 
the revolution effected at Vienna by Strauss, 
Lanner, Libitzki, and the other composers, so 
popular among the dancing world. The com- 
positions of these gentlemen require to be played 
with remarkable firmness and precision; and 
though in some respects their influence may 
have operated very unfortunately, yet I believe 
it has had the effect, by exciting emulation 
among the inferior class of musicians in Bo- 
hemia, of rousing them to increased efforts to 
improve themselves. 

Nor is it an uncommon thing, in the beer- 
houses of Prague, to find singers who accom- 
pany themselves on the harp. They have in 
general a veiy varied collection of songs and 
melodies, and a musical collector might discover 
many that would be new to the world at large. 
Their songs are sometimes German and some- 
times Bohemian, and many that I heard were 
evidently popular favourites, for I could see tRat 
the waiters and the guests knew the words by 
heart, and frequently joined in chorus. Some- 
times, the whole assembly would suddenly inter- 
rupt their conversation, and accompany the 
singer with a sort of wild enthusiasm. The 
singer had generally a table before him in the 
centre of the room, and on this table the little 
piles of copper kreuzers accumulated fast, for 
almost eveiy guest, as he left the room, depo-. 
sited his offering unasked. These are trifles, 
no doubt, but I believe them to be peculiar to 
Prague, and they afford an insight into that love 
of song and music which pervades all classes 
in Bohemia. 

It seems strange to me, that after Teniers and 
Ostade have immortalized the boorish dances, 
the brolrcn bottles, the black eyes, the torn hair, 
and the red Bardolph noses of the Dutch gin- 
shops, and that so delightfully, that princes think 
themselves happy in having one or two of these 
coarse bacchanalian pictures in their drawing- 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



41 



rooms, — it seems strange to me,T say, that none 
of our modern painters should have attempted 
the far more poetical and characteristic scenes 
that are of daily occurrence in one of these 
beerhouses of Prague. Imagine the crowded 
room transferred to canvass, the singer forming 
the central figure, the guests joining in chorus, 
the waiters with their mugs of beer snatching 
up a fragment of the sung as they hasten from 
one customer to another; the jolly well-fed host 
moving with dignity through his little world; 
nor must we forget the stalls at the door for the 
sale of bread and sausages, for the vender of 
beer supplies not these, he ministers only to the 
thirst of his visitors, and those who would satisfy 
their hunger must bring their viands with them. 

Even the coffee-houses, which are numberless 
in Prague, whereas in Dresden there are none, 
have many peculiarities; but they are all fash- 
ioned after Austrian models, of which I shall 
have occasion to speak hereafter. I, coming 
from the north, was struck by the brilliant man- 
ner in which these places were lighted. I could 
not at first persuade myself that the rooms were 
not illuminated with gas. The fact is, the peo- 
ple here understand the management of oil 
lamps better than in any other part of Germany. 
Something of this, I believe, is owing to the su- 
perior quality of the oil. 

"So, now we're to be bored about lamp-trim- 
ming!" mathinks I hear some of my fair readers 
exclaim. "Pretty company you take us into! 
First you introduce us to girls that go dancing 
about the streets, heaven knows why; then to 
the beer-bibbers of the cattle-market, to the to- 
bacco fumes of the cotfee-houses', and — " No 
farther, my fair censor, pray. Does 3-our name 
happen to be Anna, or Annette, or Annchen, or 
Annerl, Nancy, Nannetie,Nannerl, or Nettchen? 
for so far as the Austrian eagle stretches its 
wings over the fair sex, these names all pass- 
foroneand thesame. If any one of these names 
then belong to you, I congratulate you, for in 
that case you are most pressingly and kindly 
invited to the festival of St. Anne, celebrated 
this day in the charming Moldauinsel, and thera 
it will be my agreeable duty to introduce you 
into very well-bred and agreeable company, in 
which you will find all the pretty Annes of 
Prague, a crowd worthy of all admiration, and 
where you will find the popular manners of 
Prague presented to you in a totally different 
point of view. 

St. Anne's day is one of the most distinguished 
popular festivals in all parts of the Austrian 
dominions, but nowhere are the Annes made 
more of than in Prague. This holiday falls on 
the 26th of July, and on the preceding evening 
every street-corner is tapestried with urgent in- 
vitations to festivities of every description. The 
tavern-keepers and other masters of the revels 
are emulous in their descriptions of the brilliant 
preparations made by them for the entertain- 
ment of all the pretty Annes in Prague. One 
addresses himself simply to the "beautiful 
Annes," another to the " charming Annes of llie 
Bohemian capital," a third heads his placard 
with an invocation to the "highly respected 
Nannetles." Accordingly, when, on the all- 
imporlant day, the rising sun sheds his illumi- 
nating rays on the corners of the streets of 
4 



Prague, those pretty maidens for whom their 
godmothers have taken the necessary care, may 
behold their fdtcd name made glorious in yel- 
low, blue, and red letters, in Latin, Gothic, and 
German characters, and may see themselves 
invited to such a countless number of dinners, 
suppers, breakfasts, rural excursions, balls, and 
illuminations, that it must sadly puzzle them to 
determine to which of so many kindly soliciting 
admirers they will extend their approving smiles. 

The beautiful Fdrberinatl is always tlie chief 
point of attraction on this day. This island, 
perhaps one of the most beautiful places of 
public resort in all Germany, is not large, of an 
oval form, about 150 fathoms long, and 100 
fathoms broad, is surrounded by the rapid waters 
of the Moldau, and presents its visitors with a 
complete Panorama of Prague and its hills. To 
the right j'ou see from the Fdrbcrinsel the old 
city, to the left the Hradshin and the Kkinseiie, 
behind rises the Vissehrad, and in front lies the 
old Moldau bridge. In the centre of the island 
are some elegant buildings, which stand open 
all day long for the entertainment of strangers. 
In the rear of these buildings, he who feels him- 
self disposed for sedentary enjoyment, will find 
abundance of benches and tables laid out under 
the canopy of huge spreading trees, and a tribune 
erected for the accommodation of an orchestra 
will seldom be found unoccupied. On both sides 
are paths, which wind off among grassplots and 
bushes, and on St. Anne's day, every place is 
hung with wreaths and garlands, with here and 
there triumphant arches, illuminated at night, 
and decorated with colossal A's and N's. 

Early in the morning the host who farms the 
bridge that leads to this charming little island, 
has already taken a more considerable toll than 
is received during the whole twenty-four hours 
on any other day in the year; for the music, on 
St. Anne's day, begins at sunrise, and closes not 
till the moon has vanished on the following night. 
The greatest throng is between five and seven 
in the afternoon, but the more aristocratic of the 
Annes generally retire on the first appearance 
of the moon and lamplight. 

The afternoon on which I found myself in the 
Farhcrinsel, in honour of the distinguished day, 
was favoured by the most delightful weather. 
The fair sex: were in a majority of two to one, 
owing, no doubt, to the great number of Annes 
with -whom Prague has from time immemorial 
been blessed. The place was small and the 
crowd great, so great that the visitors could do 
little else than move in slow procession along 
the broad walk which encircles the island. 

"I can confidently say that I am not what is 
generally called an enthusiast," said a friend 
who accompanied me, as we plunged from the 
little bridge over the Moldau, into this stream 
of life and beauty, "but it does'Seem to me as 
if in the whole course of my life I had never 
been surrounded by so many angels' heads, by so 
many graceful forms, or by so many beautiful 
faces." — "It is truly a bewitching spectacle," 
was my answer. We now proceeded'to stem 
the current, that we might admire the fair pro- 
menaders at greater leisure, and without making 
use of the slightest hyperbole, I was obliged to 
own that never in my life had I seen so magni- 
ficent a display of beauty. One lovely face 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



followed another in quick sxiccesjion, and eT«n 
I. d:-:]] 2nd nnercitable as I have often been 
I . _ ~ -cli", could not resist uie in- 

: and the enthusiasm -niUi 

V - :.>pired. iras lo me the be^t 

pri.\ : il:^: ihc- ^pLCiaciC -vras one of unusual 
beaurr. Like Xerxes at the Heliespcnt, vrhen 
contemplating his numerous arrar of soldiers, 
I could hare shed a tear at the thought, that all 
the loveliness before me vas destined to be the 
prer of Time and Death. 

That ihe litUe ugly, squalling, red-faced crea- 
tures (for all newly-bom babies are alike) 
should grow up in Prague into such remark- 
ably beautiful girls, is one of those phenomena 
of nature ■which I cannot take upon mj-self to 
explain. Some hare atrributed the fact to the 
miugling of German with Slavonian blood, but 
this the Slavonians protest against most loudly, 
icllmc you that in the vil]age5 of die interior, 
where no such mixture of the rac^s has taken 
place, much finer specimens of female beauty 
are to be found, than in any of the frontier dis- 
tricts. The members of the Bohemian Patriotic 
Association boast, moreover, that by far the 

:hest display of beauty is to be seen at ibeir 

.lis, where liothing but Bohemian is ever 
:^i.oken, and where, consequently, the bulk of 
the company must be genuine Slavonian; nay, 
even the far-famed beauty of the Hungarian 
ladies is attributed by these zealous patriots to 
the mixture of Slavonian blood with that of the 
original races. The theory is not one that I 
would at once reject as absurd. On the con- 
tranr, I often fancied, in the c^r.urse cf my subse- 
quent wanderings, thai I saw reason lo believe " 
there was some ground for it. Be this, however, 
as it may, Prague is decidedly a very garden 
of beauty. For tlie young ladies of 1S41, 1 am 
ready to give my testimony most unreservedly, 
and many an enraptured rnareller has left us his 
books as living witnesses to the loveliness of 
the grandmothers and great grandmothers of the 
present generation. The old chronicler, Ham- 
merschmidi, and his contemporaries, dwell with 
equal pleasure on the sweet faces that smiled 
upon them in their days, and the picture gallery 
of many a Bohemiaii castle is there to testify to 
the truth of their statements. One witness there 
is to the fact, whose right few will question to 
decide on such a poinu Titian, who studied 
the faces of lovely women for ninety-six years, 
and who, while at' the court of Charles V., spent 
nve years in Germany, tells us. it was among 
the ladies of Prague, that he found his ideal of 
a beautiful female head. If we go back beyond 
the hmes of Titian, we have the declaration of 
Charles IV. that Prague was a Aorius delidamnu, 
and whoever has read tlie life of that emperor, 
will scarcelv doubt that beautiful women must 
have been included in the delights of a capital 
so apostrophized. Xay. the time-honoured no- 
bility of the beauty of" Prague, may be said to 
go back even to the earliest tradition, where we 
iflnd it celebrated in the legends of Libussa and 
Viasta, and the countless songs composed in 
honour of the Deviy Siavanske or Tshekhism 
damsels. 

I own I am still at a loss to conceive how it 
was possible for Przemysl to reject the overtures 
of his iiair Bohemians, and how he could find it 



Ib his heait to wage seainst them the barbarons 
war that has since become so famous in history. 
I am not at all suq->rised that his first enterprises 
against them should have been marked by such 
singular failure. I am sure tlvat if the two 
thousand Nancies and Nannettes whom I saw 
assembled on the Farberinsel had taken it sud- 
denly into their head? to get up an insurrec- 
tion, and intrench themselves within their little 
island, any army that the Empcn^r could have 
sent against ihem, would have been mnch more 
likely to surrender at discretion to the besieged, 
than to turn their murderous artillery against 
such a garden of loveliness, or to fiesh their 
bright swords among the Vienna shawls and 
French silks that were paraded so bewitchingly 
before my eyes. 

By the time that, stemming this tide of beauty, 
we had made the round cf the island some three 
or four limes, night had stolen upon us, though 
to do him justice, Helios was in no hurry to ran 
away from so fair a scene, but seemed to linger 
long, unwilling to depart, before he could make 
up his mind to consign himself to the accus- 
tomed embraces of Thetis. The fireworks had 
to wait long before it was sufficiently dark for 
the proper display of the rockets and Chinese 
fire that were intended to blaze in honour of the 
day, and when they were let ofi", they turned out 
to be very little worthy of being waited for; but 
the music of tlie Bohemian polhas and redotvks 
compensated for the failure of the fireworks. 
The whole festivity closed with a *• splendid 
supper," at which I found it impossible, either 
for money or fair words, to obtain the slightest 
panicle of any thing to eat or drink. 

From the delightful promenade of the Farbe- 
rinseL, I went to ane of tlie popular balls, given 
at the twelve dancing-rooms at Prague. These 
rooms are never closed on Sundaj-s or holidays, 
but on this day they had recommended them- 
selves to public favour with even more than 
wonted assiduity. I extended my patronage to 
an establishment of which the host recommend- 
ed himself by a feeling of "Veneration for all 
^anneties.* The classes represented in this 
ball-room belonged to the humbler section of 
the middle orders, and I*ara sorry to be obliged 
to own that I found neither the Bohemian beauty 
nor the Austrian merriment that I had looked 
for. There is something repulsive in the im- 
pression produced by an assemblage in which 
we find the costume of the cultivated classes 
copied with great precision, but from which the 
manners and conversation of refined life are 
entirely excluded. In proportion as the fashions 
and habits of the great are imitated by the little 
world, will aU originality, cheerfulness, and fun, 
be extirpated from among us. 



THE NATIONAL ^lO^'EMENT AMONG 
THE BOHEMIANS. 

One of my first walks in Prasue was to a 
Tshekhian bookshop, and to the Museum of the 
Patriotic Association. I was anxious to see 
what new blossoms the Bohemian tree had shot 
forth, and what ancient fruits it had garnered 
up. The shop in which the literary novelties 
of Bohemia are offered to a patronizing public. 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



43 



Is situated in a narrow gloomy lane, and the 
man who owns the shop, and is the chief pub- 
lisher of modern Bohemian literature, is a Ger- 
man. His shop is small, hut is often visited by 
the youn|j patriots, — the advocates, the students, 
and the literati, — who go there to turn over his 
Bohemian, Illyrian, Polish, and Russian books, 
and sometimes to buy them. All these Slavo- 
nian languages are at present studied with great 
zeal by the Bohemian patriots; and it is a sin- 
gular coincidence, that in Russia, also, there is 
at present quite a rage for the study of Bohe- 
mian, Polish, and Illyrian. For Russian books, 
I was told, there was a frequent demand, but 
they were difficult to obtain. It has long been 
customary among the young men at Prague to 
study Russian, which they acquire with little 
trouijle, and which many find of great advantage, 
numbers of yonng Bohemian physicians emi- 
grating yearly to Russia, where their familiarity 
•with the Slavonian languages facilitates their 
advancement.* 

Bohemian literature works for the enlighten- 
ment of four countries: Bohemia, Moravia, a 
part of Silesia, and the country of the Slovalcs 
in Hungary. For this reason the Bohemian 
journals (the Vlaslbnil for instance) point to 
the four corners of the world, or more properly 
to the four corners of the paper, with the four 
words: Slezan, — Czech, — Slovak, — Mornvan, — 
(the Silesian, — the Bohemian, — the Slovak, — 
and the Moravian). 

Among the new publications "of 1841, 1 was 
shown the Semski Sud, or the Old Law of Bo- 
hemia. The Austrian censors were long before 
they could be induced to accord the Imprimahir 
to this work, on account of some severe articles 
which it contains against the Germans, but the 
censorship is becoming more indulgent now, 
and, with a few omissions, the book has been 
allowed to walk forth into the world. The 
Bohemians, therefore, may again sing in the 
M-ords of the famous old poem, the Judgment of 
Libussa: — 

Shameful 'twere from Germans' laws to borrow, 
Laws wo have ourselves of holy statute 
Brought in days of yore by our good fathers 
To this land of blessing t 

Twenty years ago, nay, fifteen years ago, the 
literature, that is the living literature of Bohe- 
mia, was perfectly insignificant. At that time 
little was spoken or heard of the Slavonians 
living under German domination. Some of our 
travellers of the last century carried their sim- 
plicity so far, as to express surpise. in their 
printed books, at finding the country people of 
Bohemia speaking a dialect altogether unintel- 
ligible to a German. Some very learned people 
had only an indistinct notion, that in some parts 
• 

* The various Slavonian dialects (Russian, Polish, Bo- 
hemian, Illyrian, &c ) bear so strong a reseniblace to each 
other, that the peasants of one of these countries camisu- 
ally make himself understood to those of all the rest. 'I'he 
grammatical acquirement of the llussian language must, 
therefore, be an easy task to a well educated Bohemian.— 
Tr. 

t Bohemian poetry, like that of most of the Slavonian 
languages, is destitute of rhyme, a deficiency the less felt 
on account of the distinct measure of time which prevails 
in the Bohemian words, and which makes it more easy to 
adapt the Roman and Greek rhythm to the versification of 
this than of any other modern language.— Tr. 



of Germany the population was of Slavonian 
origin. Bohemian literature, in the mean time, 
had sunk to a level about as low as that of the 
Lettes and Esthonians in the Baltic provinces 
of Russia, and was confined almost exclusively 
to popular balLvls. Things have changed since 
then, and the Bohemians go so far now as to 
take it very much amiss when they read in a 
German book, that " Prague is one of the most 
interesting towns in Germany." The cuckoo, 
they say, might just as well call the nest his 
own, from which he has just expelled the linnet, 
as the Germans call Prague a German city, 
seeing it was built by the Tshekhs; but here I 
would humbly remark, that the cuckoo would 
play a less odious part in our books on natural 
history, if after taking possession of another 
bird's nest, he were to embellish and beautify 
it as the Germans have done by Prague. The 
fact is, the whole of Bohemia is still a disputed 
territory between the Germans and the Slavo- 
nians. The Germans maintain it was origin- 
ally a German land, or, at lea.'^t, that it was 
inhabited by the Germans four hundred years 
before the Tshekhs came into the country; but 
the Tshekhs (see Palazky's History of Bohe- 
mia) saj' — "You Gennans took the country 
from the Boyers, and held it by no other right 
than that of the sword. By the sword you won 
it, and by the sword you lost it again, and for 
eight hundred years we held it against 3-ou." 
To this we Germans may reply: — " But we have 
again won the mastery of the land from you 
with the sword, and we have triumphed over 
you yet more by the energ}" of our civilization. 
Here are tvN-o swords for one, and as ancient 
and modern lords we have the most perfect right 
on our side; so we shall continue to call Bohe- 
mia a German land, in right of our sword, our 
civilization, and our industry, — a German land, 
in which the intruding Tshekhs are condemned 
to plough our fields."* 

Till very lately, there had existed no good Bo- 
hemian dictionary; but this Avant has now been 
supplied by Mr. Jungmann, who, though a Ger- 
man by name, is said to be a very zealous Bo- 
hemian patriot. His dictionary was the work 
of several years, and has been published at his 
own expense. He is even said to have sold a 
vineyard, to defray the cost of his undertaking. 
The publication commenced in 1836, and is now 
complete. I was not so much surprised at the 
sacrifices made by the patriot scholar, as at the 
backwardness of other patriots, to assist him 
in his undertaking. One might almost be led 
from this to believe what a Bohemian once said 
to me, in speaking of the great movement and 
excitement among the Bohemian patriots* ■ 

" It is a kind of luxury," said he, " in which 
a few idle young men indulge, and in which 
they are encouraged by the professors and anti- 
quaries; but it is no movement originating in 
the wants, or emanating from the wishes, of the 
peoplQ. All that is eminent with us is German. 



* Bohemia can scarcely be said to owe muc^i^liza- 
lion to Germany. When the country passed ^^Bl^he 
domination of the house of Austria, there waJ^^^Hier 
country that stood higher in point of civilizatioHHrthe 
Bohemians have since fallen into the rear of the "tnarch 
of improvement," Austrian oppression, and particularly 
the unrelenting barbarity with )y.hich the Protestant reli- 
gion was extirpated, must bei^Hi^blame.— T'r. 



vith )y.mcn 

w 



44 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



Our men of education read Schiller and Goethe, 
in preference to any other writers; every offi- 
cial man, down to the humblest clerk, writes 
and speaks German; and as every Bohemian 
feels that he cannot get on in the world without 
a knowledge of German, he seeks to learn it 
himself, and teach it to his children, and has no 
time to trouble himself about the fantastic vi- 
sions of the Tshekhian patriots. Besides, the 
(Tcrmau language is taught, ex-ujicio, in every 
school, and many of our gentry do not even un- 
derstand the patois of the country. With all 
tiiese miglity agents at work, what avail the 
efforts of a few enthusiasts'? The government, 
meanwhile, feels itself strong enough to let the 
Tshekhian party go their own way. Foreign- 
ers, moreover, are deceived, if they attribute to 
politics all that is done licrc in the way of Sla- 
vonian investigation. The inquiring spirit of 
the time, the revived fondness of every thing 
that tends to the illustration of antiquity, has led 
to similar eiforts in other countries, as well as 
in those inhabited by Slavonians. Every pro- 
vince in Europe has been burnishing up its re- 
collections; every city has been turning over the 
leaves of its chronicles, and repairing its cathe- 
dral or its t.)\vn-house. Not only the Slavonian 
jirovinces, but all the provinces of Austria, 
have been collecting their antiquities, dusting 
their records, and new binding their chroni- 
cles. The same has been done in the provinces 
oi" Prussia, and indeed in the provinces of al- 
most every European country. We have seen 
Ossian's literature rescued from its lomb in 
Scotland, and in Germany we have seen Voss 
writing poems in Plutt Deiifsch,- we have seen 
Westphalian, Saxon, and Brandenburg Asso- 
ciations, not to speak of hundreds of other 
provincial societies; and thus the fashion has 
readied Bohemia at last. It is not any inclina- 
tion on the part of the Western Slavonians to 
accept the fraternization offered them from the 
East, that has led to all these Slavonian jour- 
nals, grammars, dictionaries, and poetical an- 
thologies. In England, and even in France, 
books and newspapers have been printed in the 
local dialects, and so in Russia have works been 
of late published in Lettish and Esthonian, lan- 
guages of which, some years ago, no cultivated 
man made use, unless perhaps in the pulpit. 
It is not to be denied that tlie provincial, litera- 
ry, and patriotic movements in the Slavonian 
provinces (ff Austria, acquire a peculiar cha- 
racter from the spirit of Panslavismus, of which 
so much has been heard of late years. No nation, 
while yet a breath of life is in it, becomes recon- 
ciled to^the loss of its independence; and though 
the ]|^imians, the Slovaks, and the other Sla- 
vonian's, would do better to attach themselves 
more and more to the mild sceptre of Austria, 
ihan to stretch out their hands after the ques- 
tionable independence which seems to be offered 
tiiemfrom the East, yet nations, like individuals, 
are not exempt from acts of folly, prejudicial to 
others as to themselves; and for their own sake, 
thei^jl^, as well as for Austria's, the Bohe- 
miaHbust be watched. The classes, how- 
evefUPffich have most influence in the country, 
are the least disposed to sympathize with Rus- 
sia. The clergy and the nobihty know how 
litde they would ]j||jg|j|||^ to gain by exchangin 



i^m^tc 



the sovereignty of Austria for that of Russia- 
Recent events in Poland have likewise much 
contributed to cool the enthusiasm formerlv ma- 
nifested for Russia. The less instructed Bohe- 
mians, indeed, look upon much that they hear 
of Russia as mere German calumnies; but those 
among us who stand higher, have had opportu- 
nities, many of them, of seeing with their own 
eyes. In short, should it ever come to a struggle 
between the Slavonian and German elements, 
the Tshekhs, in spite of their sympathies and 
a.itii)alaies, will be found fighting on the side of 
the (Jermans, audit will be for their own advan- 
tage to do so." 

iin the museum of the Bohemian Patriotic 
Association, on the Hradshin, whither I went 
in company with a learned and highly esteemed 
Bohemian, nothing interested me more than the 
collection of coins. Though not so complete as 
the Bohemian antiquaries wish, it is by far the 
richest Bohemian collection m existence, and 
consists exclusively of national coins, those 
merely put into circulation by the Boyers, the 
Markomans, and the Romans, being excluded. 
There are old Tshekhian coins of a period far an- 
tecedent to the Christian era; — these are rudely 
fashioned pieces of gold, somewhat in the form of 
modern buttons. In the early period of Christian- 
ity, when it was still uncertain whether Bohemia 
would be brought within the influence of By- 
zantine or Roman civilization; the coins of the 
country seem to have had a decidedly Byzantine 
character. At a later period, when the Hun- 
garian invasions had cut Bohemia off from the 
Byzantine world, the coinage assumed an Ita- 
lian or rather a Florentine character. On the 
Florentine ducats coined in Bohemia, may be 
seen the Florentine St. John, with a small Bo- 
hemian St. John by his side, in the same way 
as during their revolution of 1831, the Poles 
coined Dutch ducats, on which a diminutive 
Polish eagle appears by the side of the Batavian 
knight. 

As we reach less remote ages we may ob- 
serve alternate advances and retrogressions in 
the arts. The cultivated age of Charles IV., 
and the fanatic century of the art-destroying 
Hussites, may be distinctly traced in the little 
glittering denarii and ducats, dollra's and brac- 
teati. Coins may likewise be seen here of all 
the great Bohemian families that, at various 
times, have enjoyed the privilege. Among these 
families the most distinguished are the Schlicks, 
the Rosenbergs, and the Waldsteins, or Wal- 
lensteins, as Schiller, for the convenience of his 
rhythm, has thought proper to call them. Of 
the Waldstein family, however, none have ex- 
ercised the right of coinage since the days of 
their great ancestor, of whom some very beau- 
tiful ,gold coins still exist. The Counts of 
Schlick exercised thc^irivilcge longer than any 
other of the old Bohemian families. Coins of 
a very recent date maybe seen with their efligy. 
Their celebrated silver mines at Joachimsberg 
w^ere so productive, that in the beginning of the 
16th centurj', they coined Avhat were called 
Joachiinstliakr, which weighed a full ounce, and 
which may still be found in circulation in Rus- 
sia, Avhere they are known sometimes by the 
name of Thulcri, and sometimes by that of 
Yefunld. 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



45 



A peculiar kind of Bohemian coinage are the 
royal Rechenpfenuige, or counters. Among the 
various public departments of the Bohemian 
government, it seems to have been usual from 
the earliest period to have employed, for ba- 
lancing public accounts, a certain coin which 
ma}^ be looked on in the light of a copper re- 
presentative of a certain amount of gold or sil- 
ver. Tlicse arbitrary coins circulated only from 
one public department to another. The noble 
families in Bohemia appear to have adopted 
this custom, and coined similar copper counters 
for the convenience of the various departments 
of government on their estates. The collection 
of the Patriotic Association is richly provided 
with various specimens of these royal and lordly 
counters. 

The Bohemian lion, with a crown on his 
head, with his two tails, and walking erect on 
his hinder feet, is to be seen on all Bohemian 
coins, even on most of those struck by the sove- 
reigns of the house of Ilabsbiirg. Under Maria 
Theresa the lion becomes less omnipresent. 
The latest ducats that bear the eiligy of the 
royal beast are those of 1780. It was on the 
large silver money that he first resigned his 
crown. On the smaller silver coins he conti- 
nued to hold his state throughout the Mhole of 
Joseph II.'s reign, but since then the whole 
coinage has been purely Austrian. 

Of all joyful and deplorable events in Bohe- 
mian histor3% there seems to have been a desire 
to preserve the recollection by means of silver 
and gold medals. Thus we have medals of 
Huss, who, as the inscriptions inform us, was 
burnt at Constance in violation of public faith. 
Frederick of the Palatinate has also not failed 
to leave golden and silver monuments of his 
brief and disastrous sojourn in Bohemia. Close 
to these, and adorned with ominous inscriptions 
lie the medals struck by Ferdinand on the oc- 
casion of his sanguinary victory on the White 
Mountain. In honour of the victory, Ferdinand 
erected on the mountain a church, which he 
dedicated to the Virgin, and under the fonnda- 
t'oa-stone a very large gold medal was depo- 
sited. At a subsequent period, Joseph demo- 
lished this church, and the medal, being found, 
was sent to Prague, and came, in due time, to 
the museum of the Palrittic Association. On 
one side is a view of th§ conquered city of 
Prague, over which is seen hovering the image 
of Maria de Victoria in (ilbo Mv^ite, with the in- 
scription Reddife ergo quae sunt Caefuris Caesari, 
et quae sunt Dei Deo. Christ little thought, when 
he pronounced those words, that they would be- 
come one day in the mouth of an imperious 
victor, a symbol of terror to millions of human 
beings. Ferdinand, as we are told, saw a vision 
the night before the battle. Oiu" Saviour, it is 
said, appeared to him in a dream, and said to 
him, "Ferdinand, I will not forsake thee." To 
this vision allusion is made on the reverse of 
the medal on which is represented a crucifix;, 
whciicc rays of light shine on the emperor, who 
knee's before it, and underneath are .the words, 
" Ferdinandc, Ci^o fe von dcseraTn." It seems 
strange that after he had made so unchristianlike 
a use of his victory, our Lord did not again ap- 
pear to him in a vision, and say to him, " Sed 
tu, Ferdinandc, me et meos deseruint'. 



After the Battle on the White Mountain, Ger- 
manism became so impressed on Bohemia, that 
many Bohemian families Germanized the Sla- 
A'onian nanies they had borne till then. Thus 
the family from which had issued the celebrated 
St. John of Nepomuk or Nepimucenus. bore 
originally the Slavonian name Hassil. Nepo- 
muk is a small town in Bohemia, and the bishop, 
according to the fashion of his day, was called 
John Hassil of Nepomuk, and sometimes, for 
greater brevity, John Nepomuk. After the bat- 
tle of the White Mountain, the Hassils trans- 
lated their name into German, and called them- 
selves Loeschner. Many of the nobles, however, 
had Germanized their names long before the 
catastrophe. of the White Mountain. Instances 
of the kind occurred during the reigns of Charles 
IV. and his son Venzeslaus. During their reigns, 
many castles were built on mountains and rocks, 
according to the German fashion, whereas the 
ancient Bohemians had been accustomed to 
build for greater strength among marshes oron 
the banks of rivers. These castles, built after 
German fashion, received also German names, 
ending generally in berg or burg, and the fami- 
lies began to be called after their castles. In 
this way the family of Vitkovy came to be the 
family of Rosenberg, the house of Dipoldit;, 
changed into the house of Riesenburg, Ransko 
was metamorphosed into Waldstein, and Divis- 
hovzi into Sternberg, and all these families be- 
came much more famous under their German 
than they had ever been under their Slavonian 
Jirnias. The Bohemian patriots claim all these 
I'aniiltes as genuine Slavonians; maintaining 
that a Slavonian is no more a German because 
he has taken to speaking German, than the 
Russian nobles can be said to be Frenchmen 
because they speak habitually French. 

The largest Austrian gold coins have the 
weight of twenty ducats. Ten ducat pieces, I 
am told, are still coined, and are occasionally 
found in circulation. As my readers are ail 
honest people, there can be no harm in my tell- 
ing them that fifty of these seductive looking 
lumps of gold are to be seen in the collection at 
Prague. The largest gold medal in the museum 
weighs no less than one hundred ducats. The 
mosfc modern medal is one struck a few 3'ears 
ago, i« honour of a visit paid by the Emperor 
Nicholas to Prague. The inscription is: Nic/in- 
lau.i /., Cesarsch Rusfiki, ^c. (Nicholas I., Rus- 
sian Emperor, the Illustrious Guest in Prague.) 

I also found much that interested me in the 
library of the Bohemian Association, though I 
was not so fortunate as to have the learned and 
esteemed librarian. Professor Hanka, for my 
guide. The departm.ent of Bohemian literature 
is by no means complete, much having been 
taken by the Royal Library where a section is 
set apart for it. The collection on the Hradshin 
is rich chiefly in Natural Histor)'. On the other 
hand, however, the kindred Slavonian literatures 
of Russia, Poland. Illyria, Sen-ia,and Carinthia, 
have each its department. I was told that a 
Russian grammar for the use of Bf>hemians 
would shortly be published, and could not but 
feel surprised that the relations between the 
great Russia and the little Bohem.ia should al- 
read}' have become so active, that the want of 
such a work should have been felt. It is not 



40 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



many years that Germany has been in pos- 
session of a usable Kussian grammar. 

Of Bohemian Bibles many are to be seen here, 
as well the faithful Utraquist version from the 
original languages, as that arranged for the 
Catholics fi-oi#the Vulgate of Hieronymus. At 
present, Bohemia can be supplied with Tshek- 
liian bibles only by contraband. There is not 
indeed any prohibition against their sale, but 
they are not allowed to be either printed or im- 
ported. The smugglers on the Saxon frontier, 
however, arc very active, and Iceep the market 
supplied, though perhaps rather sparingly. The 
bibles are supposed to come from Berlin and 
from England. The Bible Society of Dresden, 
I was assured by the president himself, did not 
themselves send a single copy into Bohemia, 
but the free traders of the frontier, in the same 
way in which they receive ord':>rs for cotTee and 
sugar, receive orders proljiibly t\om time to 
time for bibles. Two years ago, I was told, 
several waggon-loads of bibles fell into the 
hands of the Bohemian custom-house officers, 
by whom they are kept to the present day under 
lock and ke}'. ^ 

Autographs of men celebrated in the history^ 
of Bohemia are likewise to be seen at this mu- 
seum; among many others, those of Huss and 
Zizka. The latter'usually added the place of 
his nativity to his signature, and signed — Zizka 
von Trotziiow. Some of his letters, however, 
are signed — Jan Zizka z'Kalichu, from a castle 
which he had built and to which he had given 
the name of Kalich or the Chalice. 

In the cabinet of natural history on the Hrad- 
shin is sliown what strangers are told was the 
last bear that ever existed in a state of nature 
in Bohemia. This animal is said to have been 
shot in 1817, but I had subsequent!)^ an oppor- 
tunity of satisfying myself that the race of wild 
bears is not yet extinct in the country, for on 
the Schwarzenberg estates, near Bud weis, I saw 
at lea.^t a dozen of them. Jiynxes and wild cats 
are also to be found in the mountains, and bea- 
vers along the banks of the Moldau, and some- 
times even in the immediate vicinity of Prague. 
Their unsuspected presence near the capital 
led, not long ago, to a singular lawsuit. A 
farmer who owned a field near the rive^-, ob- 
served that some ti'ees and shrubs had several 
times been cut down and carried away during 
tlie night. He brought an aciion, in conse- 
quence, against one of his neiglihours. The 
court appointed persons to visit tlie place and 
inspect the stumps that remained. Tl,..'>e per- 
sons, on viewing t'.ic ground, (Ici'lar^'d iuime- 
diately that the jirnperly had broii canied away 
by fourfooted thieves, and after a close searcb, 
a little colony of beavers was discovered, sup- 
posed to have come down the river from the 
neigbbouihood of Budweis. 

In the mineralogical collection the most cele- 
brated piece is the "accursed burgrave," a 
meteoric stone weighing upwards of two hun- 
<lred pounds, to which popular traditii n has 
attached a legend of a tyrannical noble, vv ho, 
when his soul was taken away to hell, left-this 
black metallic lump behind in the place of his 
body. N(jt as a natural curiosity, but as a visi- 
ble proof of the devil's potency, the stone was 
for many years preserved at the council-house 



of EInbogen, where miraculous powers were 
even attributed to it. Whoever lifted the "ac- 
cursed burgrave," it was said, would be cured 
of sundry complaints, and many peasants fre- 
quently came lo EInbogen to test ihe healing 
powers of the stone. I have no doubt its effects 
vVere frequently very satisfactory, for a sick 
man who retained strength enough to lift such 
a weight, was not likely to be in a desperate 
condition, and might at the same time hope to 
derive benefit from a few gymnastic feats. In. 
later times, when science encroached more and 
more upon the domains of superstition, the Mu- 
seum at Vienna laid claim to so rare a specimen 
of aerial mineralogy. The counsellors of EIn- 
bogen fought lustily for their treasure, and at 
last a compromise was agreed to: the burgrave 
was sawn in two, and one half went to Vienna, 
while the other half remained at EInbogen. The 
Bohemian Patriotic Association possesses only 
a model of the whole as it appeared before the 
ruthless partition was carried into effect. 



THE BOOK OF LIFE ON THE MOLDAU. 

To those who have read the history of Bohe- 
mia, it will be no matter of wonder to be in- 
formed, that even at the present day there con- 
tinues to be so much talk at Prague of the 
Herren Sihnde (My Lords the States), of whom 
you will one day hear that they have been es- 
tablishing an agricultural institution, on another 
that they have directed a suspension-bridge to 
be built over the Moldau, or that they have ad- 
vanced money for the construction or repair of 
some public building. There is as much attri- 
buted in Pi-ague to My Lords the States, as there 
is in Rome to the Pope. In ancient times they 
elected kings, and regulated the articles of pub- 
lic faith; at present their activity is limited to 
the less imjiortant sphere which I have just 
indicated. Formerly the cities of Bohemia, 
particularly Prague and Guttenberg, had con- 
siderable weight in the asseniblies of the States; 
at present the few deputies for the towns that 
are still admitted, are consigned to a single 
bench — a soit of stool of repentance — in an ex- 
treme cnrner of the hall, where the burgesses 
are effectually separated from the remainder of 
the deputies, and iftat in such a waj', that no 
civic representative, unless of more than ordi- 
nary boldness, will be likely to have the assur- 
ance to intrude his opinions upon his august 
colleagues. " My Lonls the States," in Bohe- 
mia, are at present neither more nor less than 
the highest order of nobility — namely, "the 
reigning" counts, princes, and barons. The 
head of the family being in possession of the 
estate of the family, is always described as the 
"reigning" count, &c. 

The Bohemian nobilit)-, owing to their great 
wealth, to the good education most of them re- 
ceive, and to the distinguished abilities of some 
among them, occupy a highly important position 
in the Austrian monarchy, and exercise a far 
greater influence upon the administration of the 
empire, than do the nobles of any other pro- 
vince. The highest office in Bohemia, after the 
king, is that of Obersil/wggraf, a Boheniian dig- 
nity of very remote antiquity. He is assisted 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



47 



by fourteen counsellors of government or Gii- 
hernialrnihe, and by a vice-president, besides 
which the country "is divided into sixteen cir- 
cles, each circle having a captain and three 
conilnissaries to superintend its affairs. This 
graduated list of public olticers,from the Ohcrst- 
buri^graf to the Kreisconimissar, or commissary 
of the circle, is called the government of the 
country (die bohmische Landesregierung), and 
nearly all these offices are filled by members 
of the old noble families of Bohemia. 

This Bohemian government, lilce that of Ga- 
licia, Moravia, Austria, &c., stands under the 
control of what is called the United Court 
Chancery at Vienna. At the head of this cen- 
tral department is a Superior Chancellor, as- 
sisted by a Chancellor of the Court, two Vice- 
Chancellors, and as many Aulic Councillors as 
there are provinces or governments subject to 
this court chancery. Hungary and Transyl- 
vania have separate chanceries for the control 
of their affairs. A singular circumstance con- 
nected with this court chancery is, that it en- 
joys the title of Majesty, being addressed "Your 
Majesty the Chancery of the Court." This is in 
some measure characteristic of Austria, where 
it is a common saying, that it is not the emperor 
who reigns, but his officers. 

Not only over the administration of their own 
country, but over the whole empire, the Bohe- 
mians exercise great influence, owing to the im- 
portant posts to which they have raised them- 
seves by their ability and official aptitude. In 
every office in Vienna you are sure to find Bo- 
hemians, and they are mostly the favourites of 
their superiors. In the Polish and Italian pro- 
vinces it is the same, so that while the Bohe- 
mians are grumbling about the state of depend- 
ance in which their country is kept on Austria, 
the other provinces might with more justice 
complain in their turn that they are subject to 
Bohemians. Two of the most distinguished 
members of the Austrian government are at 
present Bohemians — namely, Count Kolowrat 
and Count Mitrowski. 

To give an account of the picture-galleries, 
libraries, and museums, collected at the various 
castles of the Bohemian nobles would, no doubt, 
be a highly interesting occupation, but would at 
the same time be found an herculean labour. 
At Prague, there are many private palaces Avell 
deserving the attention of a traveller, but I am 
sorry to say I was able to visit but few of them. 
The only private picture-gallery I Avas myself 
able to inspect was that of the Nostitzi palace, 
but the palaces of the families of Wallei^siein, 
Czerni, Lobkowitz, Schwarzenberg, and others, 
are all deserving of attention. What particu- 
larly interested me at the Nostitzi palace, was 
the model of a marble monument intended to be 
erected at Teplitz. It represents the Knight 
Przemysl labouring at the plough, at the mo- 
ment when 1u3 envoys of Libussa arrive to offer 
him the crown. On another side is a group in 
which he is seen as King of Bohemia holding 
his entrance into the palace of his consort. The 
Bohemians show quite a passion just now for 
illuslrating the early periods of their history by 
monuments, and many a name is brought to 
light, and becomes more famous perhaps in 
these days, than it ever was during the life of its 



owner. There is in the same gallery, a beauti- 
ful group by Canova, of Cupid and Psyche. 
Schidone's Woman taken in Adultery is a 
charming picture; but there is one by Eyk that 
is most revolting. Christ is represented under 
a press, with blo(;d spouting from different parts 
o\' his bod}'. A stream of blood gushes from 
his breast, and is caught by priests, who dis- 
tribute it among the people. There is an ex- 
quisite picture by Von Schalken.of a girl eating 
a peach. 'The peach is such a soft, juicy, deli- 
cate, velvet-clad fruit, that a painter can choose 
no more suitable viand on which to make a lovely 
maiden fea^t. To bite into an apple, she must 
make an effort that distorts her features, but a 
peach may be enjoyed with a kiss. 

I spent but little time.hovvevcr, in the Nostitzi 
Gallery, for there were other objects in Prague 
that I was more anxious to see. Among others 
I went to visit the Tein Church, once the chief 
temple of the Hussites. In their time the pic- 
tures and images were all destroyed, but at 
present the building is again amply provided 
with them. This church contains a multitude 
of monuments, but those that most attracted my 
notice were one of Tycho de Brahe, with a Latin 
inscription to the effect that neither wealth nor 
power, but only the works of science are im- 
mortal; and secondly, the tomb of a Jewish 
bo3', on which was a Latin inscription, of which 
the following is a translation: "A little Hebrew 
boy (Hebraeolusi being inspired by God, fled, in 
the year 1693, to the Clementinum, the College 
of th'e Jesuits, that lie might be baptized. After 
a few days he was treacherously taken away 
from his place of rpfu-c. He was tortured by 
his parents, who assailed him with caresses, 
menaces, blows, hunger, and other torments; 
nevcrtheles'^, he remained steadfast in the true 
faith, till on the.lQth of February, 1694, he died, 
in consequence of the treatment he had re- 
ceived. His body was privately buried, but on 
the sixth day was dug up again, and, on being 
inspected by the magistrates, was found free 
from all offensive smell, of its natural colour, 
and floating in rosy blood {roseo .sanguine), 
whereupon it was carried from the townhouse 
in solemn procession, followed by an immense 
multitude of pious people, and was brought to 
this spot." 

It is strange what different answers you will 
receive in Prague, if you inquire whether there 
are still any Hussites in the place. Some say 
positively "yes," and others are quhe as posi- 
tive in saying "no." Several persons assured 
me there 'was a Hussite house of 'prayer in 
Prague, but one, likely to be well 'informed, said 
there had been such a place, but it had since 
been converted into a warehouse. Most people 
will tell 3^ou, "Oh, in the mountains there are 
Hussites enough," but then the people of Prague 
dispose of a multitude of things by turning them 
over to the m luntains. "Yes, there are Huss- 
ites," another will add, " but they pretend to be 
Protestants." In point of fact, there are no 
Hussites oflicially recognised as such, but it is 
probable that many in secret still sympathize 
with their doctrines. Of Protestants, according 
to the official census, there were 81,000 in 1839, 
or about 2J per cent, of the entire population- 
In Moravia they are more numerous, amounting 



48 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



to 110,000 souls, or 6 per cent, of the popula- 
tion. Moravia excepted, however, the Protest- 
ants form a larger proportion of the population 
in Bohemia than in any other Austrian pro- 
vince. 

Among the princely gardens of Prague, I 
visited those of Count Salm, and Prince Kinsky. 
In the count's garden I found twenty gardeners 
and assistant gardeners employed, with a court 
gardener { HoJ'gartner) to superintend them. 
Tiiey told rne they had no le,ss than 350 kinds 
of ericas; and of these, as of the fine collection 
of Australian plants, there were many that had 
been brought into Bohemia for the first time 
that year. A great trade in plants is carried on 
with the interior of Austria from Prague, where 
they can be had from England and Holland 
with tolerable facility over Hamburg. In the 
Kinsky garden, I was too much taken up with 
the beauty of the place, to make many inquiries 
about its statistical details. The garden is ar- 
ranged on a succession of terraces, that rise 
from the Moldau up the side of a hill, from the 
summit of which the eye revels in a panoramic 
view of Prague and its environs; one of those 
vieu^s on which one dwells with lingering fond- 
ness, but of which the pen is powerless to con- 
vey a description, and of which all we can say 
is, that it is beautiful. 

At my feet lay the isles of the Moldau, and 
the suspension-bridge. When this bridge and 
its approaches are finished, the aspect of Prague 
will be materially improved. There was for- 
merly no quay along the side of the river. This 
want will now be supplied, a number of old and 
ill-looking houses having been bought up and 
pulled down, with a view to the construction of 
a quay and of some handsome buildings cal- 
culated to form a more suitable frame to the 
stream. Numerous Schmakels (an Austrian word 
for boats) animated the wate?, along whose 
banks lay stretched a botanical and several pri- 
vate gardens. On the other side the deserted 
Vissehrad seemed to mourn his departed glo- 
ries; and on tracing the upward course of the 
river, the eye rested at length on the Brannik 
rock, from whose entrails had been torn the 
materials that had gone to the making up of 
the many houses that lay at my feet. The stone 
obtained from this rock is remarkably fine, and 
in the time of Charles IV. was known to his 
Italian architects under the name of pasta cU 
Fra^a. The rock itself has ils legend. A va- 
liant knight of the name of Biannik is said to 
have dwelt there, and to lie buried there with 
his brave companions. In one of the caverns 
of the n/ck, the double-tailed Bohemian lion is 
said to hold his residence, and watch over tlie 
graves of its former tenants. Once a year lie 
comes out .and salutes the Moldau valley with 
a roar, and then, having received no answer, he 
creeps into his hole again, to take another 
twelvemonth's repose. Should he, however, one 
day receive an answer, there will be a mighty 
struggle in Bohemia, for the ghosts of the de- 
ceased heroes rise from their graves, and are 
to secure the victory to their countrymen. This 
legend seems to live still in the full confidence 
of the people; but then in Bohemia there is no 
end to legends. You fall in with them at the 
corners of the streets and in the depths of fo- 



rests; they abound and thrive amid the crowded 
thoroughfares of Prague, as in the silent soli- 
tudes of the country. 

Among the manufactures of Prague we must 
not fi)rget to speak of the warehouses of glass 
goods. The workshops are generally at some 
distance in the country; but the warehouses ia 
Prague, for the greater part, are the property of 
the manufacturers. These have chemists and 
artists in their pay, who are constantly tasking 
their invention to extend the domains of glass, 
by discovering new articles that may admit of 
being formed of so brittle amaterial,and to give 
new colours and forms to those articles which the 
glass-cutters have long looked upon as belonging 
to their legitimate sphere. Of each new disco- 
very or modification a drawing is made, and a 
copy sent to the manufactory. The drawing 
and the copy bear corresponding marks and 
numbers, so that if a sudden demand comes to 
the warehouse for any particular article, all 
that is necessai^ probably is to send an order 
down to the country, to make up immediately 
so maiw dozens of B 288, or whatever else the 
number may be. I was allowed to look over a 
number of these drawings, which were neatly 
bound up in folio volumes, and I was astonished 
at the immense variety of designs and inven- 
tions for coffee, tea, and milk pots; at the end- 
less modifications of form which so simple an 
article as a glass stopper was made to undergo; 
and at the prodigality of ingenuity that had 
been expended on varying the conformation of 
a thing so unimportant as a lady's smelling- 
bottle. In the different shades of colour there 
was almost as much variety as in the form; yet 
the prevailing taste appears to be always, in the 
long run, in favour of that which is most sim- 
ple. The plain, pure, colourless, crystalline glass 
has always been in favour, and will maintain 
its supremacy in the end, however taste may 
sport for a while among the brilliant colours 
and variegated forms which science has found 
the means of imparting to this beautiful manu- 
facture. All the bright " Leonore greens" and 
" Chrysopras" of 1840, and the "Anne green," 
the " gold glass," the " dead glass," and the 
"alabaster" of 1841, may hold their place in 
public favour for a time; but they will have 
passed away v.dien the pure crystal will be 
prized as much as ever. Even so man may- 
surrender himself awhile to a chaos of absurdi- 
ties and fancies; but the pure crystal of good 
taste, morality, and justice will, ere long, make 
its worth be felt, and carry away the prize of 
publij favour from all its competitors. 



FROM PRAGUE TO BUDWEIS. 

Various as are the means by which a travel- 
ler may cause himself to be conveyed from 
Prague to Budweis, — by diligence, by mail post, 
by Stellwagen, or with a Lohnkutscher, or hired 
carriage a"!iti horses, — yet none of these means 
of locomotion can be called excellent in their 
kind.* The Bohemian diligences are very in- 



* The railroad at present, niaUins from Vienna to 
Priisue, anfl from PrasiiR to Drpsden. and which will pro- 
bably be finished in 1844 or 184-5, will elTecl a complete 
revolution in Bohemian iraveUing At the lime Mr. 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



ferior to those of northern Germany, and the 
Lohnkutschers are quite as slow in their move- 
ments as in any other part of our country. Tlie 
Stellwagen had one powerful reeoramcndation 
for me.and that was that I had never travelled 
in one of them before. They are to be met 
with in all parts of the Austrian dominions, and 
serve as a means of communication between 
the several provincial towns, for those who 
make but few pretensions to gentility. The 
Stellwagen, in consequence, is rarely favoured 
by foreigners, and therefore all the more to be 
recommended to those who are desirous of 
making acquaintance with provincial peculiari- 
ties. Accordingly, one morning, as tiie watch- 
men of Prague had just announced the import- 
ant fact that it had struck four o'clock, I was 
rolling, in one of these humble vehicles, through 
the Russthor, and out upon the Budweis road, 
in company with a goldsmith of Prague, an en- 
graver, a forester, a farmer, and a young mother 
with a little boy upon her lap. 

I had an excellent opportunky here of study- 
ing the peculiarities of the Eiohemian-German 
dialect, and I was not a little surprised at the 
systematic and consistent manner In which the 
good people modify our grammar and pronun- 
ciation to suit their own views. Sometimes 
Slavonian words are Germanized, and some- 
times German words effectually disguised by 
Slavonian terminations, and at other times the 
strangest gibberish is produced by the least 
cultivated classes,, who frequently mix up their 
German and Slavonian in so indiscriniinatt' a 
manner,as to make tlieirmeaning iHiiiitcl!ii;iMe 
to any one not familiar witli both languages. 
These remarks do not, of course, apply to the 
more educated classes, who claim for them- 
selves the honour of speaking the Austrian- 
German better and more correctly than the Aus- 
trians themselves; a similar claim is set up by 
the gentry of Hungary, Croatia, and Slavonia, 
in the same way that the Courlanders and Li- 
vonians maintain, — and not without reason, — 
that thejitepeak the North German dialect more 
purely and correctly than the North Germans 
tliemselves. 

I spent the whole morning in the study of the 
various systems of torture to which my mother- 
tongue was subjected by the Bohemian mouths 
of my fellow-travellers. We dined at Miltschin, 
and shortly afterwards we arrived at Tabor, the 
celebrated stronghold of the Hussites in the fif- 
teenth century. Many have supposed that the 
Hussites named the town and the hill on which 
it stands after Mount Tabor in Palestine, but 
Tabor is a genuine Slavonian word, that occurs 
in all the Slavonian dialects, and signifies a 
piece of ground surrounded by a paling, whence 
it is figuratively used for an intrenched camp. 

The usual road passes not through Tabor, but 
close by the side of it, so that iew travellers ever 
see the inside of the towm; we, on our part, how- 
ever, ventured to deviate from the general rule, 
and proceeded to take a nearer inspection of so 
inteiTsting a localitj'. 

The Lusnitza, a tributary of the Moldau, by 



describing nearly a circle, has isolated an oblong 
hill from the surrounding country. On three 
sides this hill is steep, and hurrouiided by water; 
on the fourth side art has come to the aid of 
nature, to strengthen the place. On this hill, at 
an early period of the religious disturbances, 
some of the Hussites were wont to assemble, 
and to receive the chalice in the communion; 
but when the royalists began to raise the cry of 
"heretic, heretic" against the Bohemians, and 
to burn all that fell into their hands, and wheii 
the Hussites, by way of retaliation, clapped their 
German prisoners into tarred beer-barrels, and 
set fire to these in the public markel-places; in 
a word, when the Hussite wars broke out, the 
persecuted race endeavoured to obtain posses- 
sion of strong places; and as those in royalist 
hands could not always be had for the asking, 
it became necessary to build fresh ones. Zizka,* 
not the less sharp-sighted for having but one 
eye, soon saw how well this mountain was 
suited to be the site of a strong fortress, which 
he lost no time in erecting there; and from the 
fortress of Tabor he made his devastating ex- 
cursions against convents and castles, his ad- 
herents, from the place of their residence, being 
generally called Taborites. 

'The little city is still most curious to see, 
bearing even now the most comj)lcte stamp of 
the at;e in which it was creeled. Tlie gates 
arc narnjw, and the doulile walls and bastions, 
which icmaiii IVoin the days of Zizka, present 
a slril;iim cnnlrast to the peaceful Catholic cloth- 
weavers that now shelter behind those formi- 
(lal'Ic works. The streets, as in most of the old 
1 B(..heinian towns, radiate from an open space 
in the centre which serves as a market, and 
many houses of an antique castellated shape, 
continue standing. In front of one of these, at 
the corner of t1||e market-place, stands an an^ 
tique balcony, which is still called Zizka's pulpit, 
from which he is said frequently to have ha- 
rangueS his Avarlike scholars. The town-house 
is the most ancient of all the buildings. Within 
it are still preser\'ed Zizka's shirt of mail, his 
arms, and a quantity of old books, but we were 
unable to obtain a sight of these curiosities, in 
consequence of the Burgomaster, who had 
charge of the keys, being from home. Camion- 
balls may be seen in the walls of many of the 
houses, but can hardly belong to the times of 
the religious wars. In front of the church is a 
bust in stone of Zizka, and the grim features of 
the one-eyed hero may likewise be seen on the 
facade of a private house. Zizka was of a 
middling stature, rather bulky in shape, with 
broad shoidders, and a high chest. His head 
v/as large, round, and inclining forwards; his 
beard black and bushy, his mouth large, his 
nose thick, and his complexion brown. So in- 
delibly have these features impressed them- 
selves upon the Bohemians, that even now, after 
an interval of four hundred years, the people 
of Tabor continue to cut portraits of Zizka in 
v,^ood, as knobs for walkingsticks. I, loo, bought 
one of these Zizka slicks, upon which the Hussite 
chief is represented with a plain helmet on his 



Kohl's wnrli waa published, the arrancrRinPn's b<>twppn 
the Ausin.in ami SaxoD eovprnmeiits relative loUiis rail- 
road, Uail nui yei beeu coinpleied.— 2V. 



* ThP nainp shnuM bn prnnnnnrpfl Phiphka, or rather 
more suftly, thp Roliemiau z having a sound like itie 
French j iu jarUia. 



50 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



head, and a bandage over his right eye, which 
he had lost early in life. His left eye he lost at 
the sie2;e of Rabi castle, where, a javelin strik- 
ing a tree near him, a sijlinter tlevv aside and 
completely blinded iiim. Nevertheless, he re- 
tained his command as general, though he had 
to he led into battle by a guide; and it was, in 
fact, after his blindness, that he attained the 
zenith of his power, when he gained his victory 
over the people of Prague, who, though Hussites 
themselves, had gotten into a quarrel with the 
devastator of their country.^ Hereupon, he con- 
cluded a treaty of friendship and alliance with 
them, and dieir elective king, Korybut, and so 
great was at this time the power of the blind 
chief, that the Emperor Sigismund offered him 
the government of the kingdom and the com- 
mand of its army, if he would consent to re- 
cognise the imperial authorit)^ During the 
negotiations that followed, Zizka, at the height 
of his power, died suddenly of the plague. 

Every thing about the man, even from his 
birth, appears to have been extraordinary. His 
mother was suddenly attacked by the pains of 
child-birth while in a forest, and Zizka was 
born with no shelter but that of a tree. In his 
character he was savage and cruel, as much as 
he was valiant and eloquent. Bohemian writers 
say that the peculiarities of his style are as 
difficult to render into German, as are the refine- 
ments of Caesar's eloquence. He rose from a 
comparatively humble station, to supreme power 
in his native land, and gained thirteen pitched 
battles, several of which were fought after the 
loss of his second eye. The manner of his 
death was also remarkable, and so is the memory 
preserved of him to this day by his countrymen. 
The place of his birth is still pointed out as an 
unblessed spot, and the ground where stood the 
tent under which he breathecil^is last, remains 
uncultivated to the present day. Just as the 
history of Napoleon is known to all Europe, so 
is that of Zizka, in all its details, fanliliar to 
every Bohemian, and there is scarcely a castle 
or a convent in the land, in which his portrait 
is not to be found. 

After the death of Zizka, his soldiers called 
themselves his orphan children, and divided 
themselves into four parties: the Orphans, the 
Taborites, the Orebites, and the Pragueis. Bo- 
hemia was denominated the Promised Land, 
and the surrounding German ])rovinces were 
declared to be the lands of the Philistines, the 
Moabites, and the Idumeans. It was at this 
time, no doubt, that the large lake n^r Tabor 
received the name of Jordan, and the hill behind 
Tabor, that of Horeb. As Tabor was the chief 
city of the Hussites, so it now became the scene 
of their worst excesses, which attained their cul- 
minating point in the M'ild extravagance of the 
Hussite sect of the Adamites. At Tabor too, 
where the Hussite wars had commenced, they 
were likewise brought to a close, for it was the 
last city that submitted to the Royal States. It is 
said, that a remnant of the Adamite sect still 
exists in Bohemia, and that other Hussite sects 
have maintained themselves under such deno- 
minations, as the " Red Brothers," and the 
"Brothers of the Lamb." 

From the foregoing it will be seen, that we 
had turned our time to good account during our. 



short stay at Tabor. At the next stage, the name 
of which I have forgotten, I had an opportunity 
to see a Bohemian pheasant-preserve. The 
rearing of pheasants in Bohemia is carried on 
upon an enormous scale, as may be judged from 
an advertisement which I saw, and in which a 
certain Count Schlick offered three thousand 
pair of living birds for sale in one lot. In these 
preserves the pheasants are divided into wild 
and tame; the wild are kept in large woods, the 
tame under roof or in enclosed yards. 

The night was already far advanced when 
we reached Budweis, but in that city, for the 
consolation of travellers be it known, the sun 
never ceases to shed his light upon the benighted 
stranger, for the inn so named has a large lamp 
burning conspicuously, from evening till morn- 
ing, in front of the chief entrance. 



THE CASTLES AND ESTATES OF 
SCHWARZENBERG. 

The souther* extremity of Bohemia, the 
country round Budweis, is distinguished, even 
in a land «o rich in stately mansions and 
princely estates, for the magnificence of its 
casties, and for the extent of territory held by 
individuals. Here it was that formerly dwelt 
the family of the Rosenbergs, a race so power- 
ful, that several of the Bohemian monarchs 
wooed the daughters for their brides. The 
Lords of Rosenberg frequently contracted mat- 
rimonial alliances with the sovereign houses of 
Germany, and on one occasion we find the name 
of Rosenberg among the candidates for the 
Polish crown. At present the family is extinct, 
a circumstance that cannot but seriously have 
afilicted Charlemagne, the Trojan heroes, Noah, 
and sundry others of the ancestors of so illus- 
trious a line. It is certainly a singular coinci- 
dence, that the branch of the Rosenberg family 
which had been planted and had taken root in 
Courland, should have died away much about 
the same time as the main family-tre^n Bohe- 
mia. Similar coincidences, however, are on 
record respecting other families, of which dif- 
ferent branches established in distant countries 
have all become extinct nearly at the same time. 

In the cellar of the Senate at Bremen there is 
a wine that by its great age has acqitired such 
an odour (so exquisite a bouquet as the con- 
noisseurs of wine express it) that 3'ou need only 
pour a few drops upon your pocket-handker- 
chief, and you will have no occasion for eau de 
Cologne for several days afterAvards. Nobility 
seems to be like this wine — the older it grows 
the more it is prized, and if its origin is lost in 
the dark ages it becomes quite inestimable. 
The last of the Rosenl>e!-gs, according to all the 
things that are related of him, seems to have 
thought his nobility justsucha jewel of priceless 
value, but dear as it was to him, he was unable 
to bequeath it to a successor; for nobility, like 
genius, virtue, and learning, is not to be disposed 
of in a man's last will and testament. Unblessed 
v/ith an heir to what he most esteemed, the last 
of the Rosenbergs went to his grave, but his 
sublunary possessions, his broad lands and 
stately castles found an heir soon enough in the 
family of the Schwarzenbergs, who are now the 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



51 



undisputed lords of all the lands in which the 
Moldau and its tributaries take their rise. 

The most important of their castles and es- 
tates are called Krummau,Wittingau, and Frau- 
enberg, and all thati had heard of the charms of 
these castles excited too much curiosity in me 
to allow me to neglect an opportunity of paying 
thein a visit. What I saw far exceeded what I 
had expected to see. 

I paid my first visit to the one that passed for 
the least important, and diove with an hospita- 
ble friend, a resident of Budwei^, down the 
verdant banks of the Moldau to Schloss Frau- 
enberg, which stamls on a rock by the river- 
side, where it forms a conspicuous object to ail 
the surrounding country. 

Upon the said rock there stands an old castle, 
and a new one of much greater splendoiw is 
rising by tlie side of it. Over the entrance to 
the old one stands the inscription, Frudus Belli, 
referring, I believe, to the gift which one of the 
Austrian emperors, Ferdinand II., if I nm not 
mistaken, made of this castle and lordship, to 
one of his Spanish generals, Don Balthasar 
Maradas, Count of Salento. Under the gateway 
of the castle may still be seen a tablet, on which 
this Don Balthasar is styled Comes, Dominus 
in Frauenberg. At present, however, the gate- 
way is surmounted by a Turk's head, from 
which a raven is picking out the eyes. This is 
the crest of the Schwarzenbergs, who, like many 
Austrian families, carry Turkish emblems and 
spoils jn their shields. The view from the 
castle is unspeakably beautiful. The fields and- 
meadows of the Moldau lie at your feet, and 
farther on lies a plain, from the midst of whicli 
rise the steeples of Budweis. The whole is 
bounded by branches of the mountain range of 
the Bohemian Forest, and over the landscape 
lie scattered a number of villages, all of which 
belong to the lordship of Schwarzenberg. To- 
wards the east the eye travels on towards Wit- 
tingau, another Schwarzenberg lordship. 

When the French Marshal, Bernadutte, visited 
the castle in 1805, (by the by, the French must 
liave carried away more agreeable recollections 
from this southern extremity of Bohemia, which 
they visited leisurely as visitors, than they did 
from the northern part of which they obtained 
only a few hasty glances through the sulphurous 
Kmoke of Culm;) but when the marshal visited 
the castle, as I was saying, and the intendant 
pointed out the magnificent prospect to him, and 
then asked him what he thought of it, the mar- 
shal answered, " What strikes me as most won- 
derful is, that your prince should be lord and 
master over all I see." And, in fact, without 
being a French marshal of the days of the em- 
pire, whose fingers would naturally be itching 
at the sight, it is difficult for any one to let his 
syes roam from village to village, and from field 
:o field, without some little sensation of envy, 
without some slight approximation to a wish 
;hat he were able to step into the Schwarzen- 
berg's place. All the while I was there. I was 
ihinkiiigof the old fairy tale of "Puss in Boots," 
where, as the king and his son-in-law arc driving 
;hrough the country, the cat keeps saying, 
'Every thing you see belongs to our lord and 
master the prince, your majesty's son-in-law." 
I am not aware that the old castle is yet in. so 



ruinous a condition, that it might not have stood, 
and kept out the wind and rain for many years 
longer; but when a man has 4,000,000 florins 
(£400,000) a year, as Prince Schwarzenberg is 
said to have, he is not expected to take as much 
care or his pennies as might beseem a thrifty 
cobbler; and as the prince is passionately fond 
of Gothic architecluie, it is very excusable ia 
him to have set aside .500,000 florins to build 
himself a new house according to his favourite 
fashion. When this new building is finished, 
Frauenberg will be one of the handsomest cas- 
tles in Boliemia. The sandstone for the Gothic 
ornaments comes all the way from Vienna- 
We saw standing in the court-yard a quantity 
of these stones, packed up in chests with as 
much care as if they had been so many loaves 
of sugar. 

Frauenberg is celebrated throughout Bohemia 
for its wild-boar hunts, which are carried on 
here, probably, on a grander scale than in any 
other place in Europe, and are, indeed, unique 
in their kind, like the Esterhazy stag-hunts oa 
the Platten liakc in Hungary. The menagerie 
or Thiergarttn, in which the wild boars are kept, 
covers a space of a (German) square mile and 
a half; and even of late years, as many as 300 
boars (a kind of game growing every day more 
scarce in Europe) have been killed at one of 
these hunting-festivals. The sport is carried on 
with extraordinary pomp, and something after 
the following fashion: 

Near the park in whicii the animals are kept, 
is a small reedy lake, bounded on three sides by 
gently-rising heights. On the fourth side the 
bank is low and swampy. This lake is the 
scene of the yearly slaughterings. On the 
swampy side of the lake, a high and hollow dike 
has been erected, resting upon vaults, in which 
are confined the animals intended to be hunted. 
By the side of the dike projecting into the wa- 
ter, are small tribunes or balconies, in which, 
the lords of the chase take their places. On the 
dike, ready, if wanted, to aflbrd assistance, stand 
the foresters and huntsmen of the prince; all, 
from the head forester to the whippers-in, ia 
splendid uniforms. There are not less thau 
twenty of the prince's foresters, and I.'jO of his 
huntsmen present on one of these occasions. 
The animals arc let out of their vaulted prison 
about fifty at a time, and, driven by a crowd of 
peasants collected for the purpose, they imme- 
diately take to the water, to conceal themselves 
in the reeds, or to swim towards the opposite 
hills, where they hope to find shelter in the fo- 
rest. On the way thither they seldom fail to 
find their death from* the constant fire poured in 
upon them by the gentlemen stationed in the 
balconies. <■■ 

I observed to my companions that this kind 
of sport seemed to me mere butchering, and 
must be very insipid and monotonous; but they 
assured me it was full of pleasure and excite- 
ment, on account of the pomp with which the 
whole was conducted. In the centre of the dike 
there was always a full orchestra, and behind it 
an amphitheatre for spectators, of whom num- 
bers came from all parts of the surrounding 
countiy. The moment, they told me, when the 
sport was about to begin, when the trumpets 
sounded, and the gates were opened to set the 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



wild boars free, was one of great suspense. 
Then the situations in wliich the creatures pre- 
sented themselves to the fire of the hunters, 
were very varied. Sometimes the game would 
hide itself among the reeds, whence it would 
have to be driven by the rifles; sometimes it 
would swim as a mere black speck upon the 
water. Now one would swim directly toward 
a balcony filled with its foes, and often a few 
Xrould gain the opposite shore, antrput the best 
marlcsman to the proof to prevent their escape. 
Then, an old established law among German 
hunters requires that the creature's head should 
remain uninjured, and the himters are often put 
to it, to avoid the penalties which an infraction 
of this law draws after it. 

In the plain below Schloss Frauenberg, and 
not far from the lake I have just described, lies 
an old castle erected for the express purpose of 
bear-baiting. Such castles existed formerly in 
many parts of Germany, but have all disappear- 
ed now, with few exceptions. The buildmg I 
am now speaking of is an extensive one, with 
apartments below for the huntsmen and keepers, 
with dens for bears and kennels for dogs, and 
large suites of rooms above for the prince and 
his guests. A balcony, for the accommodation 
of spectators, projects into the courtyard, Avhich 
is surrounded by high walls, and in which 
beasts of all kinds were formerly baited. The 
last great bear-baiting that took place there, oc- 
curred only sixty years ago. 

The principal saloon of this castle is hung all 
round with beautiful pictures by the celebrated 
animal-painter, Hamilton, and I believe the col- 
lection contains the best paintings he ever made. 
Hamilton spent the years 1710 and 1711 with a 
Schwarzenberg, who arranged sundry bear- 
baitings, deer-stalkings, and boar-hunts, for the 
painter's sake; and the latter had thus an oppor- 
tunity, under peculiarly favourable circum- 
stances, of painting these beautiful pictures, 
which may now be said to waste their sweetness 
on the wilderness, being but rarely seen by an 
eye capable' of estimating their worth. The 
pictures are all of the natural size, and the sub- 
jects mostly — a stag overpowered by dogs, a 
bear battling it with his assailants, wild boars 
surprised in a thicket by hunters, and other 
scenes of a similar kind; and all so full of truth, 
that as formerly Hamilton became for a while a 
recluse here to study the physiognomy of the 
huge beasts of the chase, so a mixloin painter, 
profiting by the labours of his prcdeci's-wr, mi-iu 
shut himself up in the castle for a wliili^ and 
pursue a similar course of study with infinitely 
more ease and convenience. The dogs in these 
pictures are all portraits of animals famous in 
their day, and deserving even greater fame now 
that the}-- have been transferred to the canvass. 
When the French were here, in 174-2, they 
would fain have carried away the wlmlp ciillec- 
tion, but for some reason or other contented 
themselves with cutting the best head — that of 
a wild boar — out of the best picture. The dam- 
age was repaired as well as it could be, but the 
scar is evident at the first glance, and so is the 
inferior workmanship of the modern artist. 

After leaving Frauenberg, our next visit was 
to Schloss Gratzen, another fructus hdli. The 
battle of the White Mountain, Ayhich gave Bo- 



hemia back to Ferdinand, and which lost Frau- 
enberg for-the house of Malowitz, deprived the 
Protestant Lords of Schwamberg of their castle 
of Gratzen, which they defended valiantly for a 
while against the imperial troops. With the 
castle went also their seven (German) square 
miles of territory. The confiscated estate was 
conferred on a Frenchman, Charles Bonaven- 
tura Longueval, Count of Bocquoi, and Barou 
de Vaux, whose descendants still possess it. 
The estate is entirely unincumbered, and is said 
to bring in an annual revenue of 700,000 florins, 
or 70,000/. 

There are three castles at Gratzen. One is 
the old fortress that was so stoutly defended by 
the old Baron von Schwamberg, another is the 
summer residence of the Count de Bucquoi, and 
the third is intended for the accommodation of 
the Count's officers of state, in whose hands is 
the administration of the lordship. This central 
government of the estate is called the " princely 
court chancery," at the head of which are four 
" princely court counsellors." These Bohemian 
nobles exercise in fact a multitude of rights, 
which in other countries we are accustomed to 
look on as the exclusive attributes of sovereign- 
ty. They confer the dignity of court counsel- 
lors, grant privileges to their cities, and compose 
coats of arms for them. The magistrates, how- 
ever, whom they appoint, are obliged to go 
through the same studies, and submit to the 
same examination as those appointed by the 
state. 

We found the officers of the Bucquoi house- 
hold paying compliments to one another at the 
entrance to a concert-room. Here, as on many 
of the largte estates of music-loving Bohemia, a 
private band is kept, to give occasional con- 
certs, and on the fetes of the lord or lady of the 
castle to accompari}'' the organ in the church. 
Several pieces from Norma and other mcdern 
operas were performed, and were executed with 
tolerable brilliancy, the gentlemen of the house- 
hold were loud in their applause, and resolved 
that the concert should be repeated on die fol- 
lowing Sunday, the birthday of the young heir, 
when the money taken at the doors was to be 
applied to the relief of the poor. 

.We supped at the castle, where the conversa- 
tion turned chiefly on tAvo subjects, partly on the 
Austro-Boheinian frontier, and partly on the 
great fishponds, the most interesting feature in 
an ect>nomical point of view, of the large plain 
between Wittingau and Gratzen. 

In Northern Germany, we understand under 
the name of A.ustrian every one who comes 
from any part of the great Austrian conglome- 
ration of lands, provided he speaks German; 
but every well-educated Bohemian, Hungarian, 
Croatian, or Slovak, speaks our language quite 
as well as do the people of Vienna or Styria. 
Here on the mountain border, however, the 
contrast between the Bohemian and Austrian, 
and their mutual antipathies were forced upon 
my attention. Of s;//«pathies betv/een neigh- 
bouring nations there is seldom much to be 
said. In Paris or Berlin indeed, a Bohemian 
and an Austrian may sympathize with each 
other, but at home they know of no such feel- 
ing. Not merely the common people in Bohe- 
mia, but even the higher classes, participate 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



53 



more or less in this aversion to the Austrians, 
and even the German part of the population 
agree with the Slavonians in this, with whom 
in other respects they are little in the habit of 
singing in unison. Our evening party at Grat- 
zen consisted almost entirely of Bohemian- 
Germans, yet I observed upon the countenances 
of all of them a certain half-suppressed sarcastic 
smile, when I undertook the defence of the Aus- 
trians. "Ay, ay," said one of them at last, 
''honest enough they are, no canting hypocrites 
like the Italians, and hardworking enough too; 
but good God!"' and liere he shook his head with 
a smile of evident satisfaction, "what unlicked 
cubs they are! How awkward, stupid, and help- 
less in every thing! In short," added he, " it is 
a perverse and wrongheaded people." 

On their part, the Austrians reproach the Bo- 
hemians with insincerit}'. "A false Bohemian," 
is a common expression, and tlie Austrian gene- 
rally describes the Bohemian as a gloomy, me- 
lancholyi uncomfortable creature. The antipa- 
thy felt by the Bohemian, however, is decidedly 
marked by more bitterness. 

A fat carp, served in black sauce, composed 
according to a national recipe, of grated ginger- 
bread, blood, and onions, led our conversation 
naturally to the great fishponds of the neigh- 
bourhot)d. Gralzen has sixty ponds, the Duke- 
dom of Krunimau seventy, Frauenberg one 
hundrtnl and forty-five, and Wittingau two hun- 
dred and seventj'. Among these is the cele- 
brated Rosenberg pond, which occupies nearly 
twelve hundred yoke-of land, from which and 
the other Wittingau ponds, no less than four 
thousand cwt. of carp are yearly taken, and sent 
chiefly to Vienna. 

I cannot say I ever made myself so familiar 
with the complicated sj'stem of management to 
which the Bohemian fishponds are subjected, 
as I did with the manner in which the fish were 
usually brought to table, still, as I am not aware 
that any of the travellers who have preceded me 
have spoken at all upon the subject, I will en- 
deavour to give a concise account of what I 
learned about it. 

The main point, it seems, is to take care that 
at different ages and at different seasons, the 
fish be provided with the depth of water suitable 
to them, and also that the kinds of fish that do 
not suit each other should not be put together 
in the same pond. Now, as it is impossible 
that one pond can salisf3''all these demands, the 
Bohemian landowners have brought the ponds 
on their estates into a sort of connected system, 
and have given to each class of ponds its sepa- 
rate destination. 

Firstly, there are the brood ponds, {Brut, or 
Satz-lcic/ie,) in which the young fish receive the 
rudiments of their education. These ponds are 
small and contain but little food, that the rising 
generation may not injure themselves by glut- 
tonous indulgence. In proportion, however, as 
the finny babes improve in size, they are re- 
moved to the Slreck-teiche, or stretching ponds, 
where the interesting little ones are to begin to 
stretch themselves. Thence the creatures are' 
removed into the large reservoirs called Kam- 
nier ov ' Hu:ip(-leiche. In winter the water is 
warmest at the bottom, in summer at the^tpp; 
young fish, therefore, who require warmth,'^jpist 
often be put into deeper ponds in winter 



It would of course be as absurd to put old 
pike and young carp into the same pond, as to 
shut up wolves and lambs in one stable. Ac- 
cordingly there are separate ponds for each. 
When the carp, however, grow older, they are 
apt to grow lazy, and bury themselves in the 
mud, which prevents their proper development; 
and then, by way of making them more lively, 
a few young pike are put into the pond, for the 
purpose of keeping the young republic in a state 
of healthful excitement, like opposition men in a 
representative assembly. 

It may easily be supposed that all these te- 
movals and minglings necessitate a great variety 
of occupations. Usually the Avork is performed 
in spring or autumn, and great care and caution 
are necessary. If, for instance, snow were to 
fall on a fish, he must on no account be put 
back into the pond, but must be sent to market 
and sold for -what he will bring. If a sudden 
frost covers the ponds with ice, great mischief 
is done to the fish, if air-holes are not imme- 
diately opened. If this is not done, the fish 
swarm to the surface, and even if they are not 
suffocated, they "burn" their fins against the 
ice. A scarcity of water, also, in case of a dry 
suiTimer, causes great destruction in the ponds. 

The intendants of the ponds require, of course, 
at all times, to know how much water there may 
be, and poles marked with feet and inches are 
therefore fixed in each pond. A lew inches too 
much may easily occasion inundations to the 
neighbouring fields, and then the damage must 
be made good by the owner of the pond. 

Immense swarms of herons, wild ducks, and 
other waterfowl, frequent these ponds, and the 
consequence is, that all the surrounding pea- 
santry become practised marksmen. The birds 
are particularly watchful for the time when the 
water is to be let out of a pond, on which occa- 
sion they fail not to feast upon the frogs and 
upon such fish as may happen to have remained 
in the mud. These, however, they are not left 
in undisturbed possession of; for it is custom- 
ary, when the owner of the pond has secured 
the main tribute by means of nets, to abandon 
what is left to the peasants. The pond inspect- 
ors give the signal for the scramble as soon as 
the noble's boxes are thought to be sufficiently 
filled. . The signal is for the inspectors to cry 
out Horzi hurzi (It burns, it burns); whereupon 
the crowd rush with loud cries into the mud, 
and drive the geese and herons from their prey. 
The peasants obtain a good deal of fish in this 
way, and preserve a considerable quantity for 
the winter, by smoking them. 

The geese and herons are by no means the 
only plunderers of these ponds, in which otters 
and beavers likcAvise abound, though less now 
than formerly. 

On the following morning we started for 
Krummau, the most famous of all the castles 

• the neighbouring country, and certainly one 
the most interesting of all the princely man 
sions of the Austrian monarchy, with a depend 
nt_ lordship of fifteen German square mile."', 
"fty thousand inhabitants. The dukedom 
;ummau is one of those half-sovereignties 
ich there have at all times been several 
emia, as the dukedom of Friedland, which 
given to Wallenstein; the dukedom of 
Reichstadt, with which Napoleon's son was in 




54 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



vested; and the dukedom of Randnitz, which 
belongs to the Prince of Lobkowilz. 

You enter the first courtyard by crossing a 
drawbridge, and passing through a massive 
stone gateway. The castle ditch was formerly 
occupied by a number of bears, but these have 
of late years disappeared. In the second court- 
yard stands the guardhouse of the Schwarzen- 
berg grenadiers of the body guard, a corps of 
forty men, in splendid uniforms, all in the prince's 
pay, and commanded by an officer who holds 
the rank of captain. In this courtyard I paid 
my respects to one of the officers of the castle, 
and told him I wished to see as much as possi- 
ble of the place. He asked me, with a smile, 
how many weeks I inteaded to devote to the in- 
spection; and I soon found, particularly after I 
had had a glance at the archives, that the ques- 
tion implied by no means an exaggeration. 
From the second I passed into a third, a fourth, 
a fifth, and a sixth courtyard. 

The castle looks as if no part had ever been 
pulled down during the whole time that it has 
been successively held by the Rosenbergs, ihe 
Eggen'bergs, and the Schwarzenbergs The 
whole summit of the hill on which it stands is 
covered by a labyrinth of turrets, walls, and 
other buildings, in every imaginable style of 
architecture, with noble suites of rooms, such 
as we are accustomed to look for only in impe- 
rial palaces, and little poking holes, fit only for 
the rock-built nest to some robber chief of the 
feudal tiraVs. That the oldest part of the old 
buildings must be very old indeed, may be in- 
ferred from the simfjle fact, that the most modern 
portion, the New Castle, as it is called, is men- 
tioned under that name, in the archives, as 
much as three hundred and fifty years ago. 

Our first visit in the interior was to the pic- 
ture-gallery, in which are prescribed the num- 
berless portraits of the various members of the 
three noble families to whom the castle has suc- 
cessively belonged. What a family party they 
would make, if they could all step from their 
canvass and join in a merry festival! There 
would be ample room in the castle for all of 
them; but there is only one of them to whom it 
is still given to wander through the old halls and 
M corridors, and this is Bertha Von Rosenberg, the 
celebrated White Lady of Neuhaus, of -whom 
a portrait may here be seen as large as life. 

This Bertha, or Brichta, Avas married to a 
Lichtenstein, a family with which the Rosen- 
bergs, like their successors the Schwarzenbergs, 
often arrahged matrimonial alliances, even be- 
fore the bride and bridegroom had been fairly 
emancipated from the cradle. There are still 
such things as family sympathies and antipa- 
thies among the great houses in Austria, as 
there were in the earliest times of which a re- 
cord has been preserved, and some of the family 
feuds that have been retained to the present 
day trace their origin to the middle ages. Now^ 
this Lichtenstein, the husband of Bertha, w# 
a monster, and treated his gentle Avife little 
better than Bluebeard did his. Often in the 
morning, it is said. Bertha's pillow was found 
soaked with her tears, and sometimes even 
with her blood. Before her marriage she is 
supposed to have been as fond of the pleasure? 
of the world as most young ladies, but when it 



pleased Heaven to release her from her tyrant, 
she retired to the castle of her brother the Lord 
of Rosenberg, who about the same time had 
lost his wife, and with whom she lived thence- 
forth as apious widow and a notable housekeeper. 
Her chief delight was to do acts of kindness to 
the poor, whom she was in the habit of calling 
together on certain days, for the purpose of en- 
tertaining them with a sweet dish {duke rates it 
is called in the archives of the castle), and 
which still continues to be distributed. Attempts 
have more than once been made to substitute a 
money distribution, but the peasants have al- 
wa3'S stoutly resisted such an innovation, which 
jl^ey are afraid "Bertha might take amiss." 
It It is only in more recent times that black has 
been adopted in Bohem.ia, from France and Ger- 
many, as a mark of mourning. Bertha, like all 
widows of her time, wore white, Avhich she con- 
tinued to wear till death, when she was buried 
in her white widoAv's weeds. To this she owed 
her name of the White Lady, by which she' was 
knoAvn during her life, and under Avhich she is 
now almost worshipped as a saint. The people 
of the surrounding country firml)' believe that 
she continues to wander through the castles then 
belonging to the house of Rosenberg, that she 
looks about to see Avhether the houses are kept 
in good order, and whether the poor receive their 
duke inus regularly. In general, in these her 
wanderings, she is invisible to every eye, but 
sometimes she is seen, a circumstance always 
supposed to announce some great calamity to 
the famil}^ On such occasions the country 
people whisper timidly into each other's cars — 
BricJda z' Rosemberka kkodi (Bertha von Rosen- 
berg is wandering about), and a death in the 
family is then confidently looked for. At Schloss 
Wittingau there is a corridor, and at Neuhaus 
another, which Bertha is supposed to have par- 
ticularly selected for her nocturnal promenade; 
and few of the inmates are hardy enough to' 
A'isit either of these haunted passages, except 
under good escort, and with a sufficient illumi- 
nation. To be sure, by daylight, they most of 
them speak of the whole story in a very rational 
manner, as a popular fable; but I have my 
doubts Avhether even the heads of the family re- 
main altogether unaffected Avhen the whisper 
flics about that Bertha has shown herself again 
to mortal eyes. 

There are three portraits of the White Lady, 
one at each of the three castles of Neuhaus, 
Wittingau, and Krumraau, and the three pic- 
tures are so exactly alike that two of them are 
evidently copies, but at each castle the people 
maintain that they possess the original. Her 
countenance is pale and meager, and her fea- 
tures full of melancholy, but with a remarkably 
sweet expression. Her whole person is enve- 
loped in a white garment. 

My guide was the captain of the body-guard, 
who, as we passed from one suite of rooms to 
another, apologized for his imperfect knowledge 
of the great labyrinth of masonry, by telling me 
he had only been a year in the house. The 
present head of the house of Schwarzenberg is 
a ^■oung man,* Avho has abandoned all these 



+ He wds tiorn in 1799, and ia, consequently, about 44 
yeart Of a.zc.— Tr. 



m 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



55 



stately chambers of a bygone time, and has had 
a set of rooms fitted up for him with modern 
simplicity and comfort, in a corner of tlie great 
house. Then why, will you say, is not the rest 
of the place turned to account, and made habit- 
able for those, of whom there are so many, to 
whom the shelter of a roof would be a blessing] 
Why, you see, my good friend, a large useless 
house is indispensable to the proper dignity of 
a great family, and the terms of the entailment 
do not allow a single corner of the mansion to 
be neglected. 

If you wish to have a proper notion of the . 
importance of the lords of the castle in former 
days, you must go and have a look at the ar- 
mory, where you will find the whole rows of 
trumpets and kettle-drums that were Avimt to 
mingle with the family revelry when a Rosen- 
berg was married. There you will see a collec- 
tion of the coins and medals struck at various 
times by the family. My companion assured 
me that the Rosenbergs were accustomed to 
keep ready at all times arms for twenty thou- 
sand men, and that the arms nowin the armory 
M'ould suifice for the equipment of nearly that 
number, provided the greater part would content 
themselves with halberds, partisans, and battle- 
axes. 

The subterranean dungeons of the castle have 
been carved out of the rock with an immense 
expenditure of labour. We -descended with 
torches as if we had been going down into a 
mine, and came to the main shaft, which was 
nothing else but a deep broad well, cut into the 
solid rock, down which the prisoners were let 
by means ;of ropes. We threw stones into the 
dark abyss, and heai'd them strike the bottom 
after a few seconds. We threw down some 
whisps of burning straw; but, even by these 
means, we were unable to obtain a view of the 
bottom. There are other dungeons, less horri- 
ble than the one described, but quite ugly enough 
in their M^ay; yet one of them served at one time 
as a lodging to the German emperor Venzeslaus, 
who was locked up there, in 1402, by Henry 
TV. of Rosenberg. The Henrys of Rosenberg 
seem, indeed, to have been sad fellows; for 
about one hundred years afterwards, another 
Henry of Rosenberg put three magistrates into 
one of these dungeons, for coming, in the name 
of the supreme tribunal of the country, to lay 
claim to a portion of his estate for the Lord of 
Schwamberg. The claim was founded on the 
Tv'ill of Henry's predecessor; but Henry denied 
the validity of the will, and made the magis- 
trates eat the documents with which they had 
come armed. Every particle — seals, signatures, 
and all — were they obliged to devour; and when 
they had finished their meal, they were set free, 
and, by way of accelerating their retreat, the 
dogs were let loose upon them. 

The castle contains a theatre, with a wardrobe 
sufficient for a dozen theatres; a riding-school; 
and an agricultural institution, which, every 
three years, turns out about thirty practical and 
scientific farmers, who are mostly appointed to 
offices about the Schwarzenberg estates. Then 
there are collections of natural history, a che- 
mical laboratory, the castle church, &c. English 
castles may be more comfortable to live in; but 



they have little of the interest that pertains to 
one of these ancient Austrian piles, where re- 
mote antiquity is seen connected with modern 
times by an uninteri-upted chain. At Krummau 
alone, with its legends and reminiscences, a 
moderately fertile writer might find materials 
for twenty r^ances. 

The steep rock on which the castle stands is 
separated by a deep ravine from the remainder 
of the roclcy plateau. Over this ravine runs a 
covered bridge, at the end of which you come 
suddenly upon a beautiful garden terrace, 
whence the view is ravishingly beautiful; the 
bold position of the castle, as it looks down 
upon the little town of Krummau at the foot of 
the hill, producing a most peculiar eflect. The 
Moldau forms almost a circle in the landscape; 
rushing, with great rapidity, by the fi)0t of the 
rock, and nearly surrounding the little town, in 
which the chief buildings all date from the time 
of the Rosenbergs; at whose cost the churches 
and convents were erected, as well as an old 
arsenal and an hospital, and a house which 
served as a retreat for the widowed lady of ihe 
castle, whenever a new lord entered into pos- 
session. 

Towai-ds evening, after having enjoyed the 
beauties of the garden, we retired into the castle 
to partake of the hospitality of the civil and ac- 
commodating officers of the establishment — the 
directors, foresters, stewards, &c. To those M-ho 
know how well these gentlemen live upon the 
possessions of the Austrian nobles, it will be 
less matter of surprise to hear of the handsome 
suites of rooms occupied upon this castellated 
rock by such functionaries as the director of the 
castle, or the captain of the body-guard. There 
are no less than fifty small gardens (or dcputat- 
g(irten) dependent on the park, and understood 
to belong to the officers oi the castle. These 
are so numerous, that they have a coffee-house 
within the walls for their own accommodation; 
indeed, so numerous are the emp/oi/es, of one 
sort br another, on the estates of the Schwarzen- 
berg, that the printed list of them forms a tole- 
rably thick octavo volume. 

A wood near Krummau is the only place in 
Bohemia where bears are yet to be found in a 
state of nature. They are preserved with some 
care, defended against poachers, and occasion- 
ally fed with horseflesh, though in general they 
reqtxire no other food than the berries and roots 
which they find in the forest. They are mostly 
harmless, and no one now living remembers the 
time when a human creature or tame animal 
was torn to pieces by them. The last man in 
the neighbourhood who had come into collision 
with the bears died lately. He was passing 
through the forest, and seeing a young cub 
tumbling about on a grassy glade, he took it 
into his head to carry the creature home. Soo;i, 
however, he saw to his horror that the mother 
had seen him, and was coming after him in full 
pursuit. He set his prize down immediately; 
but the mother, after having smelt and caressed 
her little one, for a few instants, resumed the 
chase. The poor fellow ran for his life, and 
was just in time to reach the entrance to a 
neighbouring farm, where he fell down sense- 
less; and wiien the servants came out to his 



56 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



assistance, it was found that the anguish and 
terror of those few moments had been sufficient 
to whiten his hair. 



FROM BUDWEIS TO LINZ. 

Bndweis is completely a German city, though 
in Bohemia, and has the advantage of being the 
highest point to which any of the tributaries of 
the Elbe is navigable. Within twelve German 
miles of this point lies Linz on the Danube, and 
the approximation of two such important navi- 
gable rivers has at all times caused a very active 
commerce to be carried on between the two 
cities. This commerce has of late years been 
promoted by many improvements in the navi- 
gation of the Moldau; improvements for which 
the country stands mainly indebted to the ex- 
ertions of Mr. Lanna, a shipbuilder, whose tim- 
ber-yard at Budweis no stranger ought to leave 
unvisited. It was he who built the suspension- 
bridge at Prague, and it is owing to him that no 
less than seventy vessels so constructed as to 
suit the navigation of the Elbe and Moldau, 
arrive now every year at Budweis, and that 
there is even a reg-.^lar river communication 
kept up between the latter place and Hamburg. 
One of the consequences of the favourable 
geographical position of Budweis was, that one 
morning early, at five o'clock, I repaired to the 
office of the railroad, with the view of embark- 
ing my person in a train about to start for Linz. 
The Linz-Budweis railroad is the grandmother 
of all the railroads on the European continent; 
and, taking this into consideration, we must not 
deem it matter of surprise to find it manifesting 
occasionally some symptoms of the debility of 
old age. It was the coup d'essai of Baron von 
Gerstuer, who afterwards laid down rails in 
Russia, and died in America. He had great 
natural ditficulties to contend with in the moun- 
tainous region over which his road had to be 
carried. To overcome these difficulties he was 
obliged to make his railroad take so circuitous 
a route, that though the distance between the 
two towns, in a straight line, is not more than 
ten (German) miles, the railroad has a length 
of seventeen. After arriving at Linz, the rail- 
road is carried ten miles further to Gmunden, 
for I the convenience of the government salt- 
works at that place. 

The railroad from Budweis to Linz cost 
1,700,000 florins. It consists of a single pair of 
rails, with arrangements at intermediate stations 
to enable two trains to pass each othei*. The 
rails are partly of Styrian, but chiefly of Bohe- 
mian, iron; partly cast and partly wrought. In 
many places they seem sadly in want of repair.' 
Some have been completely worn away, others 
have lost their nails, and stand up from the 
w-ooden sleepers to which they were originally 
fastened. Sometimes a very sensible jolt of the 
carriages reminds the passengers of a striking 
difference between the respective altitudes of 
two succeeding rails; at other times a drag must 
be put upon ihe wheels, to prevent the train 
from rattling down the hill at too rapid a pace. 
My journev was performed immediately alter 
rainy weather, Avhich had made the rails ex- 
tremely dirty and slipper)^; and I find, from a 



memorandum in my journal, that our wheels J 
occasionally sunk into the soft earth. It is evi- ^^ 
dent from all this, that this railroad must have 
been left in a very neglected condition; but its 
importance to the commerce of the Danube is 
so great, that the government will be obliged, 
before long, to step in, and, by a timely treat- 
ment, endeavour to save this grandmother rail- 
road from an untimely fate. 

The trains on this railioad are drawn by 
horses, and owing to the inequalities of the 
ground over which it passes, there is little like- 
.lihood that steam locomotives can ever be intro- 
duced there. One horse generally draws two 
or three carriages; but sometimes two or three 
horses are yoked on, in which case the train 
consists of six, seven, or even eight carriages. 
On an average, a horse is able to draw from 
seventy, to a hundred cwt., at a slow walk; the 
trains for 'passengers travel at a smart trot. , On . 
the common road, in this mountainous district, 
a horse cannot well draw more than twelve cwt. 
The rich kingdom of Bohemia has been sadly 
neglected by Nature with respect to salt, one of 
the necessaries of life. Every particle consumed 
within the kingdom comes from beyond the 
Danube; and this salt trade, one of the chief sup- 
ports of the railroad, has likewise led to an 
active commerce in other goods. Merchandise 
of various descriptions finds its way from Trieste 
and Southern Italy to Gmunden, to be forwarded 
by railroad to Bohemia. 

The terminus at Budweis is in the centre of 
the town close to the imperial salt-magazines, 
and to these magazines the travellers and the 
salt-bags must alike repair. It was, as I said, 
five o'clock in the morning when I made my 
appearance there, and I found our little one- 
horse trains ready to start, as they did almost 
immediately, at an easy trot, each having about 
fifty passengers in charge. The coachmen sat 
on their boxes smoking their pipes, and the 
draught was evidently so easy, that had the 
horses been in the habit of indulging in the 
poisonous weed, they too might have amused 
their leisure by "blowing a cloud" as they went 
along. 

On a railroad where the trains are drawn by 
horses you travel with less noise than you do 
either on one where 5^ou are hurried along by 
steam engines, or on a common road. I was, 
therefore, soon engaged in an agreeable conver- 
sation Avith my fellow-travellers, and we were 
able to discuss undisturbed every object that 
presented itself within the reach of our con- 
stantly varying horizon. At Leopoldschlag we 
reached the highest level of the road, and were 
there two thousand feet over the sea, and one 
thousand over the plain of Budweis. At this 
point likewise we quitted Bohemia to enter 
Austria, and soon perceived symptoms of our 
having arrived among a more industrious popu- 
lation than that we had left, though this part of 
the archduchy of Austria is far from being its 
most populous or best cultivated district. De- 
tached fannhouses become more numerous, and 
though the estates are still large, you see no 
longer so striking and painful a contrast, as in 
Bohemia, between the castle of the prince and 
the peasant's hut. Many of the peasants, on the 
contrary, have houses quite as comfortable as 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



57 



castles, and most of them have a well-to-do look 
about them. 

The family of which one hears as much on 
the Austrian side, as one does of the Rospnliptjrs 
and Sfhvvarzenber2:s on the Bohemian side of 
the hills, is the family of the Starhemhersjs who, 
from time immemorial, have been menof mi?ht 
on the Danube, and, in the middle acres, were 
often involved in sanqruinar^' feuds with the 
Rosenberijs. At present, three rich Starhem- 
bcr^s dwell close together, — a prince, a general, 
and a count, — whose castles we had an oppor- 
tunily of admiring as we passed along. 



Many interesting and picturesque views pre- 
sent themselves on the road, though upon the 
whole it is much shut in by woods. Just before 
reaching Linz, however, as we were rolling 
down a zigzag line into the plain,a may'nificent 
prospect opened suddenly upon us. The plain 
of Linz, 'the picturesque banks of the Danube, 
and the distant Alps in the background, com- 
bined to form a glorious picture, and while we 
were yet descanting on iis beauties, we rolled 
onwards through the gates of Linz to the impe- 
rial salt-magazines, here, as at Budweis, the 
terminus of the road. 



UPPER AUSTRIA. 



LINZ.— THE CARPET MANUFACTORY. 

WnTJx, in the middle ages, an individual pre- 
sented himself before the eyes of his fellow- 
men, it was known immediately, by the colour 
and cut of his garments, to what rank he be- 
longed, and what was his vocation; but in our 
times, when superficially, that is, as far as the 
dress is concerned, all arc more or less equal, 
— although the real distinction of persons, ac- 
cording to position, dignity, and wealth, are as 
sharply defined as ever, — a traveller in a simple 
brown frock-coat, entering a Linz manufactory, 
may be taken for, — what may he not be taken 
for] particulctrly if his German accent sound 
somewhat foreign to the Austrian ear. He may 
be a Dr., a Professor, a Privy Councillor, or a 
military officer of high rank in civil costume — 
or an "■ Excellency" — or perhaps, what would 
perhaps not be among the least welcome, he 
may be a traveller for a great mercantile house, 
come to make large purchases. " Assuredly," 
thought I, as a crowd of obsequious persons 
met me on ftiy entrance into a noted carpet- 
manufactory, greeted me most courteously and 
expectingly, and hastened to display their wares, 
— "assuredly some such fancies are passing 
through their heads." I held it therefore to be 
my duty to explain to them, that in leaving my 
home, i had left behind neither kingdom, nor 
nabobship, nor lands containing 10,000 souls, 
nor a capital of 250,000 fr. rentes; but that I 
stood there simply a curious traveller, or, if 
they would have it so, a traveller desirous of 
information, without any design Avhatever of 
purchasing, or carrying off any thing more than 
could be conveyed by the eye and^^ar; where- 
upon, to my admiration, these people seemed to 
hold it no less their duty not to abate a particle 
of their hospitable Austrian obligingness, but 
rather to assist me the more zealously in view- 
ing their labours and productions. I was the 
more curious about them, as I knew how con- 
siderable a part the Linz fabrics play in the 
Austrian manufactories, and to what importance 
they have lately risen. 

As late as the year 1783, or 4, the Linz wool- 
len-manufactures were nearly the only ones of 
the kind in the Austrian states. They were 
founded, I believe, at the end of the seventeenth 
or the beginning of the eighteenth century, by 
a citizen of Linz, and are the oldest in Austria. 
This citizen made them over subsequently to 
the so-called Oriental Company, which had a 
privilege for the preparation of woollen stuffs 
of all kinds. The bad economy which reigned 
in the affiirs of the company, and the profuse 
expenditure in the erection of superb and un- 
necessarily large buildings, threatened the un- 
dertaking with ruin. To prevent the injury 
which the stoppage must have caused to the 



many individuals interested, the government 
look the business under their own management, 
reserving to themselves the privileges belbre 
granted to private persons. The interval be- 
tween 1740 and the total abolition of these 
privileges, may be considered to have been the 
period of the greatest splendour of the estab- 
lishment: ihere were emplo)red at times more 
than 20,05|0 workmen, spinnfers and weavers, in 
Bohemia; and in Linz alone not less than 2000. 
The great mind from which nearly all the new 
life in the Austrian body politic emanated, 
Joseph, abolished the privileges by which these 
20,000 men profited, at the cost of many millions; 
and since that time, the w^'kmen, scattered over 
all parts of the monarchy, have founded manu- 
factories in Brunn, Vienna, and other cities, and 
have laid the foundation of the now consider- 
able woollen-factories of Lower Austria and 
Moravia. 

Since then, the Linz factories have declined, 
and their great barrack-like buildings stand par- 
tially empty, and seem awaiting another destina- 
tion. Two branches alone of the woollen manu- 
factory have again struck root and prosper: that 
of carpets, and the printing of woollen table- 
covers. So mtich taste is here displayed in these 
articles, the colours are so lively and so lasting, 
that the productions of the Linz manufactories 
have obtained considerable celebrity in the shop 
and the drawing-room. They have warehouses 
in Leipzig, Prague, Milan, Vienna, Pesth, &c., 
and exports have even been made to France and 
England. Their extraordinary cheapness will 
no doubt lead to a further demand for these 
goods. For five or six florins* a most artistical 
and magnificent bouquet of flowers may be pur- 
chased; while one of the quickly-fading produc- 
tions of the garden would cost double the money. 
Establishments for woollen printing are still rare 
in the world, and it is therefore the more cheer- 
ing to learn that the art has already been brought 
to such perfection here. It seems to me, how- 
ever, that they have been partly indebted for 
their progress to the influence of France; the 
designers, at least, are in part French, and the 
newest drawings are made from designs received 
from Paris, which city, in the invention of new 
shades, and in the arrangement of tasteful 
wreaths and groups of flowers, is certainly not 
to be excelled. The person, too, at the head of 
the carpet printing, is of French descent. 

The name of this man is Dufresne. He took 
the trouble to show me over the table-cover 
department; and, as I visit such establishments 
much more on account of the men than of their 
productions, he became to me, in a short time, 



* The Austrian florin is equal tn about two shillinss ster- 
lins. Tlie Kheiiish florin is worth rather 1888. Ten Aus- 
trian florius are equal to one pound, or lo twelve Rhenish 
florins. 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



an object of much interest and respect. He 
halted in his gait, and in speaking of his infirm 
limb, related the history of his life. His father, 
a French emigrant, had sought refuge in Vienna, 
and there endeavoured to gain a livelihood by 
the establishment of a small cotton-prinling 
factory. An Austrian nobleman. Count X., a 
great friend to the French, lent him a small 
capital, and a corner of his house. The business 
turned out well, the father hoped for the re-esta- 
blishment of his worldly prosperity, and the son, 
who had been born subsequently to the flight of 
his parents from France, was destined for the 
military service; but Heaven willed it otherwise; 
his horse fell with him, his leg was broken, and 
thenceforward he made up his mind to follow 
his father's pursuit. Soon afterwards his father 
died, less wealthy than he had hoped to be, and 
the son found the business necessary to the 
maintenance of his mother. He studied how to 
improve it, and having one day met with some 
English woollen printing, he never rested till he 
had not only imitated, but surpassed it. Having 
thus grown up in adversity, and being endowed 
with an active spirit, he had made himself what 
he was when I saw him, " Imperial and Royal 
Inspector of woollen printing," with a good 
salary. 

The manufactory which I inspected in M. 
Dafresne's company was exceedingly well ar- 
ranged, clean, light, and in good order. In the 
large room where the colour setters were busied, 
I read on a board conspicuously placed these 
words written in chalk: "With God's aid." 
"You are surprised?" observed M. Dufresne, 
"but you will see this is the chief point. Our 
business is very laborious and difficult, and re- 
quires not only clever and thoughtful, but also 
diligent and conscientious workpeople. When 
I give a pattern to a colour setter, I give him 
also some direction how to proceed. He must 
listen and apply this cheerfully, but he must also 
consider well with what colour it will be best to 
begin and end, and give to these matters zeal 
and attention, as a painter would do; for I cannot 
attend to the detail, and must trust much to the 
conscientiousness of the workmen, who by a 
single careless step might occasion great da- 
mage. On their side they must have full confi- 
dence in me, and apply to me in all difficult 
points. All this is best obtained when a man 
keeps in mind the words you see written there. 
It is said that the inmost soul of all art is religion 
and the fear of God, and our work is a kind of 
art. I take no workman of whose character I 
am not certain; I pay far more heed to this than 
to their skill. And when I have taken one into 
my employ I observe him closely, and note 
whether he works in a pious spirit. Many a 
one have I dismissed solely on account of his 
want of conscientiousness, and I believe the chest 
of the imperial and royal manufactory has been 
the gainer by this policy. We begin in the 
morning with a short prayer, and those words 
are never effaced from the board. I have a de- 
sign ol' inscribing on a tablet over the door, those 
fine lines from Schiller's Song of the Bell: 



'And when with good rtiscnurse aUendpd, 
The course of labour cheerful flows," &.C.' 



" Wenn sute Reden sie begleiten, 
So fliessi die Arbeii muaier fun, &,c." 



and I believe money so laid out will yield a 
good'interest. Now you see. sir, you know my 
way of thinking," added M. Dufresne, smiling 
and clapping me on the shoulder in a friendly 
manner, as I applauded what he had said, and 
he further entreated me to write my name in his 
pocket-book as a memorial. 

The manipulation of the wool is one of the 
prettiest operations that can be seen, and I think 
there must be more pleasure in working at car- 
pets in a manufactory animated by so good a 
spirit than in wearing out the finished product 
in dull company. The woikman has the large 
white woollen fabric spread out before him, and 
by it the design, the coloured drawing. The 
different tints are set singly with Avooden types, 
and the workman has soon the satisfaction of 
seeing the picture unfold itself with tolerable 
rapidity before him. There are about two hun- 
dred and forty different designs for covers in this 
establishment. 1'his number'may at first appear 
small, but the difficulty of working a new pattern 
is very great. A peculiar plan must be pursued 
with every one, and of course for every one a, 
new set of wooden types made. Some of the 
colours are set abruptly one by the other, and 
some are partially covered and gently shaded 
into each other. In this manner, with ten pots 
of colour, twenty or thirty tints are produced on 
the wool. It is particularly difficult to judge 
where the single colours may be best placed, in 
order to prepare the wooden types accordingly. 
The true life, spirit, tone and softness are given, 
to the colours by the hot vapour to which the 
fabric is afterwards exposed for a time. 



THE MADHOUSE. 

Near the A\oollen-manufactor\'', and like it, 
by the side of the Danubqi^stands this edifice, 
which was erected long since, although the city 
has but twenty-five thousand inhabitants. I was 
accompanied by the obliging overseer of the 
house, which, at the period of my visit, con- 
tained about eighty simply insane patients. — 
Among these were some that especially awaken- 
ed my sympathy. 

One was a painter, a Tyrolese, who had dis- 
tinguished himself in the war of freedom, and 
had received, in consequence, a small sum of 
money from the government. As he had shown, 
from his youth taste and talent for drawing, and 
had already studied it in some degree in Vienna,, 
he appropriated this money to the expenses of 
a journey to Italy. In Rome, however, on com- 
paring himself with the great living, and greater 
dead, masters, he became aware of the little he 
was likely to accomplish with the greatest exer- 
tion. His anxious labours, unsupported as it 
appeared by true genius, induced a degree of 
morbid excitement; his efforts could not satisfy 
him, and the masterpieces of art, which he saw 
I daily before him, appeared in his e^'es so many 
[ reproofs of his own incapacity. He was not 
a bad draughtsman, and had he stuck to the 
pencil, he might have become a good mathe- 
matical or architectural artist. Unfortunately 
he did not possess the prudence so many want, 
that of contenting himself with his own modest 
portion of talent, as God had given it him, and 
putting it to usury in the prescribed direction. 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



In the exertion to become a distinpfuisheil paint- 
er, and reach a heiglit unattainable to hirii, he 
destroyed himself. In despair he lied from 
Rome and returned to his friends — a madman. 
He now fancies that oil-colours are baneful to 
him and full of poison. The sight of an oil- 
painting causes him the greatest suffering, and 
every thing that tends to remind him of brush 
or palette must be carefully kept out of his 
sight. He takes a pleasure in the use of the 
crayon and blacklead-pencil, and several of the 
patients have had their portraits sketched by 
him, very good likenesses, hanging up over their 
beds. I finind him occupied in drawing a pretty 
little landscape, and he himself assured me, with 
a friendly smile, that it was his peculiar misfor- 
tune to suffer so much frcmi oil-colours that he 
should die on the spot if he only smelt them. 
Rome, Raphael, and Correggio he had quite Air- 
gotten. In madness itself there is a kind of 
happiness and tranquillity; the condition that 
precedes it, the struggle between reason and 
frenzy, must be infinitely more terrible. What 
chambers of torture must the studios and gal- 
leries of Rome have been for this man! The 
becoming mad must be like an active conflagra- 
tion, but the being mad must resemble the con- 
dition of the burnt-out edifice, more fearful, 
perhaps, to the spectator, but far less frightful 
to the sufferer than the former convulsion. 

In another room a poor lunatic was busily 
rubbing a brass ring. He told us with great 
glee, that it was becoming brighter and brighter, 
and that the gold would soon appear. The 
director told us, he had been rubbing that ring 
for weeks together, and every day asserting the 
same thing; a prize in the lottery had been the 
original cause of his calamity. He had wasted 
his money in idle extravagance, and in a short 
time all was gone but a few hundred florins. 
These he made us^of to purchase fifty more 
shares. They came up all blanks, and the gulf 
of ruin he sawyawning before him deprived him 
of his reason. Since that time he has employed 
himself in polishing brass rings in the expecta- 
tion of their turning to gold. 

In all the Austrian lunatic asylums, we hear 
■wonders of the Douche or cold water cure, and, 
i"n Linz, accordingly, we were told of a striking 
cure performed by the help of this remedy in 
the course of the preceding summer. A man 
labouring long under the deepest melancholy, 
and a prey to monomania of all kinds, which 
ended in periodical fits of perfect frenzy, was 
completely cured in the course of three weeks 
by the Douche, and dismissed to his fellows as 
a reasonable being. 

Here also, behind an iron grating, we saw 
some poor wretches whose madness had already 
cost the lives of several fellow-creatures. — 
Among them were some of whom it was doubt- 
ful whether their deeds should be atoned for on 
the scaffold, or their correction sought for in the 
madhouse. The story of one was particularly 
horrible. This person was a citizen of Linz, 
noted some ten years before for an unconquer- 
able dread of spectres and witches. In every 
strange noise, and every unusual appearance, 
he fancied the presence of supernatural influ- 
ences; even his own wife, if she appeared 
unexpectedly before him, was sometimes taken 



for a spectre. His wife was accustomed to 
laugh at and ridicule her husband for these 
puerile terrors. On onew-ild and stormy even- 
ing, when all the vanes and window shutters 
shook and rattled fearfully, she said to him, 
'• There you foolish man, some of your witches 
will certainly come to fetch you to-night." The 
night came on, and the unhappy man became 
more silent and terror-stricken. At a late hour 
one of the children awoke, and the mother, un- 
able to still it cried at last, " Sleep you witch's 
brat, or I'll kill you." These thoughtless words 
acted like an electric spark on the dark fancies 
that lay brooding in the troubled brain of the 
miserable man. Armed with a hatchet, he sprang 
to the cradle of the child, crj'ing, " Yes, yes, 
witch's child! Kill it! Witches are all around 
us and about us! I'll kill ye all." His weeping 
wife and shrieking children were all murdered 
one after the other, and then a poor maid-servant. 
He then barred all the doors and windows to 
keep out the evil spirits that might be without, 
and watched the whole night through, armed 
with his hatchet, by the bodies of the supposed 
witches. The sun was standing high in the 
heaven, when the neighbours saw him crossing 
the street bearing the corses of his children, 
dripping with their gore. He called out that 
they were witch's children, whom he was going 
to throw into the water. He was immediately 
seized as a furious and mischievous maniac, 
and has been ever since confined in the grated 
cell where we beheld him crouching before us 
in the straw. 



JESUIT SCHOOL. 

If the object of the Lunatic Asylum be the 
restoration of the crazed to reason, the Jesuit 
school may be held in some respects as one for 
rendering crazy those Avhom nature has made 
rational, at least if we share the opinions of 
many of the enlightened of our times with re- 
gard to the Jesuits. Linz possesses one of their 
schools, oddly enough installed in one of those 
celebrated towers or citadels which surround 
the city with their strong girdles. The Arch- 
duke Maximilian, who planned and built these 
towers, gave the Jesuits one of those first built, 
for an experiment, and at his own cost, on the 
Freiberg. The Maximilian towers are large, 
round buildings, with thick walls, as great a 
portion of them being sunk under ground as 
appears above it. Below the level of the soil 
they contain several stories, while above it they 
rise but a few feet, and these are partly covered 
with turf, so that from without, by the additional 
shelter of a gradually elevated wall, they are 
scarcely to be seen. The balls of the enemy 
must for the most part fly harmlessly over them, 
while their own, discharged from cannon rising 
but a kv,r inches from the sod of the bulwark, 
and hidden besides in deep hollows in the walls, 
must burst quite unexpectedly out of the grass. 
All ihe towers, to the number of seventeen or 
twenty, stand in a certain regular connection 
with one another, yet each is susceptible of in- 
dividual defence, if the chain were broken, and 
could pour its fire on an advancing enemy as 
well from one side as the other. Really, if the 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



61 



illustrious and deeply experienced inventor were 
not known, one mjglit fancy this defensive sys- 
tem the invention of the Jesuits themselves. 

In these fortresses the fathers are now firmly 
established, after making such changes as their 
own wants and taste dictated. On the thick 
bomb-proof ground-walls they have reared two 
additional stories; the interior of tlic fortress is 
laid out cheerl'ully, the exterior vvasheil over 
with an agreeable red colour; every door bears 
the iuilials J. H. S., and every niche of the 
walls, where formerly cannon were lodged, is 
changed into a sleeping and sitting-room for the 
accommodation of the pupils or the superiors, 
attainable by elegant winding staircases running 
round the interior of the building. In addition 
to the towers a garden was bestowed on them, 
which is most diligently cultivated, and a second 
piece of ground on the foremost point of the Frei- 
berg, where they have built an elegant small 
church in the Gothic style. 

'I'he most striking piece of furniture in this 
church is a magnificent throne-like seat with a 
canopj-, both so bedizened with gold, that one 
can scai'cely believe it destined for a place of 
prayer, and for those who should set a con- 
spicuous example lo the floclc, of humble de- 
votion to God. But so it is. "It is the throne 
of the superior," answered the Jesuit lay-brother, 
who was in the church, and of whom I had in- 
quired if this were destined for the emperor or 
any other illustrious person occasionally visit- 
ing thcin. The church is further decorated 
with several'new pictures, representing scenes 
from the life of a newlj'-canonized Jesuit of the 
name of Hieronymus; one, representing him 
with the sacramental chalice in his hand on 
the seashore, and obtaining for the Neapolitan 
fishermen a miraculous draught; another de- 
picting him, cross in hand, checking the fiery 
eruption of Vesuvius. These and other pic- 
tures were lighted, not by side-windows, but 
from the roof, according to the new fashion. 
When such objects are found covered with 
dust in an ancient half-ruined cloister, or in a 
picture-gallery, from a long mouldered pencil, 
one finds nothing amiss in it; but I cannot deny 
that it made a most disagreeable impression on 
me, to find them decorating the walls of a modern 
temple, and purporting to be the events of our 
own day. 

I do not think, however, that the Jesuits have 
made any great progress of late in Austria. 
Complaints are certainly heard that the nobles 
are too much devoted to them, but that they 
should ever obtain their former position is al- 
most impossible. All enlightened persons, of 
whom there are undoubtedly many in Austria, 
have decided against them; even the lower 
classes make zealous opposition, Neveriheless 
the Jesuits have begun to spin their strong yet 
subtle nets. They are most numerous in Gali- 
cia. In Hungary there are none at all; in the 
German provinces there are three "houses," 
one in Gratz, one in Linz, and one at Inspruck. 
They have acquired most inllucnce in the latter 
city. Not long ago the Gymnasium there was 
given up to them, and teaclwrs supplied from 
their body, and since that time many com- 
' plaints have been heard, that it is no longer 
the ability of the pupils, but the rank and credit 



of their parents which decide their advance- 
ment. 

Each of the "houses" has a superior, a "min- 
ister," the superior's deputy and assistant, seve- 
ral priests (seculars), and some lay-brothers to 
cultivate the garden, attend to household aSairs, 
and be serviceable in many other ways. The 
superior of the Linz house was absent on a 
"journey of business" at the time of my visit. 
The minister was in the confessional chair, 
where I saw him with his features, concealed, 
listening to a kneeling penitent. I went after- 
wards, accompanied by a priest, who obligingly 
otlered his services, to see the interior of the 
building. We passed through the schoolrooms 
and others appropriated to the pupils of the 
institution. They live two and two together, (ia 
some of the rooms there were three,) agreeably 
to the principles of the Jesuits, that no member 
of their order shall be left without the company 
and assistance of another. No brother of the 
order ever receives permission to visit the city 
alone, he must always have another brother, his 
'■Soc.ius," with him. According to this regula- 
tion no Jesuit can ever be entangled in a dis- 
pute or strucrgle of any kind without being sure 
of help. Hence, wherever there is a Jesuit he 
is doubie-headed and four-armed, and beyond a 
doubt this is one of the most politic laws ia 
their code. Even the lay-brothers have also 
each of them his "Socius." They remind us of 
the Spartan legion, which was so unconquer- 
able, principally because it consisted entirely of 
pairs of fraternal friends Imked together for life 
and death. Two men so bound to each other, 
yield a much greater amount of power than two 
separate individuals; as two cannon-balls linked 
together by a chain produce a much more ter- 
rible effect than when fired singly. At present 
there are thirty Jesuits in the Linz house, nine 
of whom are priests, nine laj'-brethren, and the 
rest novices. They are nearly all Germans. 

"We are recruited piincipally from German- 
Bohemia," said my attendant priest, as we 
stepped out on the broad and beautiful plat- 
form of the tower to enjoy the magnificent 
prospect; "thence come the greater number of 
our pupils. We have reason to rejoice so far, 
but this is not to be compared with our pro- 
gress in Belgium. There not less than eighty- 
tour young, and several elderly men, entered 
our order in the course of last year. We have 
few or no Slavonians in our house. In Linz we 
have made no great progress, hitherto; indeed 
we possess nothing here but this house provi- 
sionally. The Florians have still the Gj-mna- 
sium. We are therefore here only provision- 
ally, and ad hiteriin, and educate our pupils ad 
interim" (is there no roguery concealed behind 
this udiiilerint? thought I,) "in the hope that in 
time a wider sphere of infiuence will be opened 
to us. W'e employ ourselves o(/ iw/cTiVn with 
the sciences, yet we think that if we form 
useful subjects, they must in time be made use 
of. The houses of our order in Austria do not 
form as yet an organized and individual pro- 
vince, but we hope it will soon talce that form. 
In Vienna we have not yet received permission 
to establish ourselves; the cause maybe the old 
prejudices against us, and a lurking remnant of 
belief in the disorders attributed to our order 



62 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



but we hope that in the constantly increasing 
enlightenment of these times, these prejudices 
will die away. I have read all the books which 
have been written fur and against the Jesuits; 
for the order was always an object of great in- 
terest to me; and since I have myself belonged 
to it, I have been amazed at the unfounded ac- 
cusations and bitter persecutions to Avhich it has 
been exposed. God be praised, we have fallen on 
better times, and people have already begun to 
acknowledge their earlier injustice. When our 
order was dissolved, at the close of the last cen- 
tury% the canonization of not less than eighty dis- 
tinguished Jesuits then in progress was inter- 
rupted. In later times, seven of these canses have 
been taken up again, and brought to an end. By 
the two last popes (the present and his predeces- 
sor), seven Jesuits have been canonized, or pro- 
nounced blessed. Among these was the cele- 
brated Canisius, whose services in Germany 
Tiave been so great. At this moment another is 
about to be pronounced blessed, who suffered 
martyrdom on his mission to Poland. He was 
slain there by the barbarians in the middle of 
the eighteenth century. The cause has been 
long in hand; but as such matters are pro- 
ceeded in with great circumspection, their pro- 
gress is necessarily slow. The documents 
proving his purity of life, and his blessed and 
worthy end, are all forthcoming; but exact and 
authentic intelligence of the death of his "80- 
cius," who accompanied him on his mission 
and suffered with him, are yet wanting; and 
these, according to our laws, are absolutely ne- 
cessary to the canonization of a Jesuit. We 
hope, however, that these supplementary points 
will speedily be cleared up, when the Holy 
Father may follow the impulse of his heart, and 
bestow the crown of martyrdom upon this ex- 
cellent man." 

My Jesuit friend had pronounced the word 
hope, at least, four or five times, whence I should 
conclude that the Jesuits of our day are very 
full of this agreeable feeling. Often, however, 
as the Jesuit appeared, I had no fault to find 
with my companion; but as I looked on the 
turf-covered, bomb-proof, and cannon-bristling 
towers of Linz, and compared them with the 
smiling, decorated building, in holiday attire, of 
which the Jesuits have taken possession, I 
thought also how quickly such a smooth, friendly, 
and courteous man of peace might be metamor- 
phosed into a rude, hostile antagonist in times 
of strife and trouble, and how certaiidy we two 
friendly interlocutors would then find ourselves 
opposed to each other. 

From our lofty stand, we commanded an ex- 
tensive view over the Austria so rich in hope 
for the Jesuits. The city of Linz, with its black 
roofs, lay at our feet; and in the distance, on 
the magnificent plains of Lower Austria, gleam- 
ed the cloister of St. Florian. The noble Danube 
flowed, in its winding course, through this beau- 
tiful land to Vienna, attended, no doubt, by many 
a longing sigh of the Jesuits, Avaftcd towards the 
stately "■ Residenz." Towards the south, the 
plains swelled, by degrees, into hills and emi- 
nences, which lay like shadows in the foreground, 
backed by the sharply-defined and majestic Al- 
pine chain of Rhoetia and Noricum. 



PROVINCIAL MUSEUM. 

Among the many national museums and col- 
lections of provincial rarities, which have arisen 
within the last ten years in all parts of the Aus- 
trian monarchy, in Prague, Pesth, Gratz, Lay- 
bach, &c., one has taken root in Linz, whose 
object it is to collect and preserve in a separate 
museum all that can have reference to tlie his- 
tory and natural productions of Austria. For- 
merly, all such things found in any of the pro- 
vinces of the monarchy were sent without 
exception to Vienna. The provinces considered 
themselves as the lawful possessors of such 
curiosities, and looked upon their removal as 
little better than robbery. No doubt jealousy of 
the all-grasping capital caused the neglect of 
much that might have been collected. h\ fact, 
objects of this kind can only be properly esti- 
mated in the place of their nativity. Many have 
provincial value and significance alone, and are 
quite worthless and unnoted in an extensive 
general museum. Few citizens embrace the 
whole state in their patriotic sympathies; the 
interest of the greater part is limited to the nar- 
now circle of their homes. 

The Linz museum has now six rooms filled 
with antiquities, coins, petrifactions, fossils, 
stuffed animals, minerals, books, and industrial 
productions, and in the treatise published every 
year a light has been thrown on many a dark 
corner of Austrian history, which would proba- 
bly not have been done if the bureau for the 
advancement of such purposes had remained at 
Vienna. 

None of the antiquities I saw here interested 
me more than the shield of a Roman warrior, 
and a Roman brick. The shield was from the 
celebrated shield manufactor)'- which the Ro- 
mans had at the mouth of the Ens, and from 
which the greater part of the legions on the 
Danube were supplied with arms. The Aus- 
trians have at present for the supply of their 
Danube army, a similar manufactory in the city 
of Steyer, not far from the Ens, where pikes, 
guns, and pistols are the weapons now made 
instead of spears and shields. The brick at- 
tracted my attention from the traces of dust and 
of straw, and the mark of the workman's fingers, 
which were still visible on its surface. An ac- 
cidental pufi' of wind probably scattered the 
broken straw upon the brick while it was yet 
soft, the workman kneaded it in, and thus the 
memorial of the unheeded motion of a careless 
hand has remained undestroyed for centuries. 
In the invisible physical laboratory of the hu- 
man world trifles are often perpetuated from 
analogous causes. 

The Romans had their principal station on 
the ]>anube, at Linz (Lentium); and in fact it 
is a position that will continue to be occupied 
so long as the land is inhabited. The Danube 
here issues from a narrow mountain-pass, into 
a rich and beautiful plain, in which roads branch 
oft' in every directioji, and traverse the broad 
valley of the Traim, joining that of the Danube, 
in the neighbourhood of Linz. The division even 
of the country into the province above, and that 
below the Ens, is old and of Roman origin. The 
whole land was called Noricum ripense; all that 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



lay below the Ens, the Romans called the lower 
towns and castles, and those above, the towns 
and casiles olJNoricum ripense. 



THE MONASTERY OF ST. FLORIAN. 

One morning, in company with a new ac- 
quaintance, I stepped into a utellwagen bound for 
Ebelsberg, a small market-toM'n at the mouth of 
the Ens. A thick morning vapour covered the 
whole valley. My companion had justly calcu- 
lated the movement of the foggy particles, and 
said to me alter a time, " We shall have a most 
beautiful day;" and in fact, as we approached 
the more elevated neighbourhood of Ebelsberg, 
we left the fog behind us, and had, as he had 
prophesied, the finest weather we could have de- 
sired. 

These public carriages (steUwagen) have been 
introduced in Linz within the last ten years, and 
now run in every direction from that city. Ten 
years ago, if a person wished to go from Linz 
to Steyer, and was at all in haste, he must have 
paid five florins, and given abundance of good 
words besides. Now he can go for about forty 
pence, and the vehicle makes the journey twice 
a day. 

My object was to visit the renowned convent 
of St. J'lorian, and also some of its peasants, 
so well known for their opulence. I left Ebels- 
berg, therefore, on foot, and striking into a by- 
road, proceeded deeper into the country. A little 
countryman who had bought a nook of land 
from the lords spiritual, and had therefore some 
business to settle with them, went with me, and 
we soon came in sight of the stately abbey 
which stands on a hill. The fields and meadows, 
the orchards, and all around, announced a sys- 
tem of careful cultivation. A storehouse, an 
apothecary's shop, a tavern, and an hospital, all 
attached to the abbey, lay at the foot of the hill. 
I praised the arrangement of all these to my 
peasant companion. " Ah," said he, ■" yes, yes, 
the holy fathers, they are clever fellows, they 
look after their atfairs, and keep things under 
their own eye." In the village stood two Avagons 
with four horses, each laden with six-and-twenty 
calves. The poor creatures lay with their legs 
bound, and their heads hanging down in a most 
painful position. Some had wounded them- 
selves against the iron work of the high wheels, 
4)y the constant convulsive twitchings of the 
mouth. I suppose there was no society in the 
abbey for the prevention of cruelty to animals. 
I looked from the poor calves to the picture of 
the Madonna, which hung from the corner of 
the abbey tavern, and read beneath these words: 
" Blessed is the holy and immaculate concep- 
tion of the Virgin Marj'." 

I had heard much beforehand of the grandeur 
of the Austrian abbeys, standing like a magnifi- 
cent chain of palaces, mostly on the right side 
of the Danube as far as Vienna; but I must 
confess that when I trod the interior courtyards 
and chambers of St. Florian's cloistered palace, 
my expectations were far exceeded by the real- 
ity. The principal part is built in ?. most su- 
perb style, from a plan of the time of Charles 
the Sixth, and is almost finished. To be almost 
Jinishtd has been tlie destiny of almost all the 



stately erections of that ruler, who died ten 
years too soon, as the zeal for building in the 
Gothic style did by a hundred. However, in 
St. Florian's abbey, it is but little that is wanting. 

Few monarchs in Europe can boast of being 
so grandly lodged, whether in reference to the 
form or materials of their dwellings, as the 
" regular Augustine chapter of St. Florian in 
Upper Austria." On either side of the lofty en- 
trance, broad marble steps lead to the principal 
floor, and corridors above a hundred feet in 
breadth run round the various wings of the 
buildings that surround the four quadrangular 
inner courts. The corridors, as well as the 
outer passages, and the floor of the great hall, 
are elegantly paved with black and white mar- 
ble, and everywhere the cleanliness is so per- 
fect, that every atom of dust must be remorse- 
lessly pursued with brush and broom. As I 
paced these corridors, the water splashing in 
the midst of the courts, the rays of the sun play- 
ing through the countless arched passages, cast- 
ing rich lights and shades upon the polished 
marble beneath, I thought if the pleasure of a 
stranger in wandering here was so great, what 
must be that of the owners, the fatheis of St. 
Florian] In the corridors are the — little doors 
they should be. but they are lofty portals, lead- 
ing to the monks' cells, to the apartments of the 
prelate, to the emperor's hall, the library, the 
cattlinars chambers, and others. 

I was really somewhat embarrassed which 
door to attack first, for I was afraid of disturb- 
ing some personage of importance turn whither 
I would. At last, wiping the dust carefully from 
my feet, I chose a cell at random, and found, in 
the person of the father and professor Kurz, so 
celebrated throughout Austria, for his leaniing 
and historical works, the very best guide to lead 
me through this labyrinth that my good angel 
could have led me to. 

The great convents and abbeys in Austria 
have been, at all times, the nurses and cherish- 
ers of science and of art; in every one is to be 
found a museum of natural history, a noble 
library, and, generally, a picture gallery; and 
each boasts its celebrated names, either of 
those who have long departed from this world, 
and live only in the aflection and respect of 
posterity, or of those still living, and actively 
engaged in the service of their order. Of the 
latter class is the reverend Father Kurz, a kind 
and venerable old man of seventy-two, who 
now advanced to meet the intrusive stranger. 
He was for a long time professor of history ia 
the Gymnasium of Linz, and has written some 
learned works on Austrian history. At present, 
borne down by years and feeble health, he has 
retired to his cell, -where he busies himself with 
lighter literary labours, and the affairs of the 
convent. I found with him a couple of peasants, 
who had come to request his advice respecting 
a lawsuit, and a peasant-girl asking him for 
some medicine for her sick mother. 

I know not whether we. North German pro- 
testants entertain very just notions respecting 
the influence, the sphere of operation, or the 
busmess and manner of life of the monks of 
the great Austrian Augustine and Benedictine 
convents; nor whether our opinion of them 
may not be too unfavourable; and I shall there- 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



fore permit myself a few remarks on the sub- 
ject. It would be highly unjust to consider such 
establishments, simply as the retreats of lazy 
monks, whose sole employments are praying 
and eating. On the contrary, the manifold rela- 
tions in M'hich such a convent stands to the ex- 
ternal world, and the great sphere of activity 
connecting it, with nearly every phase of life, 
have opened the way for the cares, die business, 
and the vexations of humanity, and paved ibr 
lliem an easy entrance to the cells of these 
monks; these, consequently, are busy men of 
the world, rather than feasting and praying an- 
chorites; and if they are worried somewhat more 
at their ease than other people, they have to 
bend like other Christians under the common 
burden. It is only a small minority of the mem- 
bers of such a house that are commonly resident 
within its walls. In St. Florian only twenty-one 
out of its ninety-two fathers were dwellers there 
at the time of my visit. The rest were almost 
constantly absent on difterent employments and 
missions, some as parish priests in their respect- 
ive parishes, some as instructors in schools, 
professors at the Gymnasia, or as stewards and 
overseers of the lands of the abbey, which must 
all be administered and overlooked. 

As teachers and professors, they must submit 
to examinations like other people, and as agri- 
culturists they are as responsible as others in 
similar employments. Those who remain in 
the convent are either the old and feeble, or 
those who have their employments in the abbey 
itself One is master of the household, and has 
the kitchen, the stable, &c. under his direction, 
another is master of the forest, a third, librarian 
and director of the museum. Some of the con- 
vents which possess observatories, have also 
their own astronomers, who, as professors of 
astronomy, teach the science in the convent. 
The observatory of Kremsminster has long 
been celebrated, and almost every person here 
can tell which father is now at the head of it. 
Even the old and feeble find much in their cells 
to interest them in the sayings and doings of 
the world without. They are the friends and 
patrons of many far and near, who visit them 
frequently to ask counsel and assistance. The 
prelates, — so are styled the heads of the great 
convents, — the prelates, if not princes by birth, 
live like princes, and have the usual alk .anent 
of business and iniluence, cares and crosses, 
that fall to the share of princes. They have 
their banquet-halls like them, but also their halls 
of audience and rooms for business, whence 
they overlook and direct the affairs of the con- 
vent. They are also frequently members of the 
provincial states, and hence, although monks, 
are entangled in some measure in the contest of 
politics. ^The whole range of great abbeys in 
the valley of the Danube may be looked upon 
as among the most distinguished pillars of the 
Austrian state edifice; and not only its suppcrt- 
ing pillars, but also the foundation and corner- 
stones of that edifice. These religious founda- 
tions, founded in the earliest ages of the Austrian 
sovereignty, were the very strongest elements 
in the formation of the future archduchy, fu the 
middle ages, the abbots of those convents often 
furnished the most considerable reinforcements 
to the Austrian armies, and at a later period, one 



of them contributed as large a sura as eighty or 
a hundred thousand liorins to the expenses of a 
war. At the commencement of the reign of 
Maria Theresa, she could obtain from the bank 
of Genoa the three millions she required, only 
on condition, that the Austrian abbeys would be 
her security. 

On almost every house-wall in Austria a St 
Florian is painted, emptying a pail of water over 
a burning house, as its protecting saint; pious 
verses are sometimes inscribed beneath, recom- 
mending the house to his guardianship, and 
sometimes verses any thing but pious, as the ■ 
following: 

" House and home trust I to Florian's name; 
If he protect it not, tiis be the shame." 

But of late, the signs and tokens of the Vienna 
and Trieste Fire Assurance Companies have 
made their appearance by the side of St. Florian, 
whose credit appears to sink as theirs rises. St. 
Florian was a heathen, and u Roman centurion 
in the time of Olim. Here in the camp by the 
Danube, his mind, bent on serious matters, and 
withdrawn from the frivolities of Rome, may 
have been duly prepared for the seed of the 
Christian religion; but how it fell, and how it 
germinated, the legend says not. Enough — Flo- 
rian became a zealous Christian, confessed and 
preached the new doctrine, and was in conse- 
quence condemned as a rebellious and frantic 
innovator by his general Aquilius, and beaten 
to death with clubs on the shores of the Danube. 
His body was thrown into the water, where it 
remained till the princess Valeria, the daughter 
of the emperor Dioclesian, withdrew from the 
embraces of the river nymphs the remains of a 
saint known and honoured as far as the Turkish 
frontier, and in the year 304, buried them in the 
place where now the abbey stands. His long 
acquaintance with the water nymphs of the 
Danube, it may be, which has rendered him so 
peculiarly fit for a fire extinguisher. 

"You may believe what you please of this 
story," said my guide to me, "but you will find 
it not only in black and white in our old chroni- 
cles, but also in bright colours in our picture- 
gallery, where we have the whole history re- 
presented in a series of twenty paintings." 

In the library of the convent there are forty 
thousand volumes. The hall is large and beau- 
tiful, a hall worthy of the muses, as is alwajjs 
the case in the Austrian convents of the first 
rank. Except Gottingen, I know no German 
university which has so splendid an apartment 
for this purpose as St. Fkirian's. With respect 
to the collection itself, it is naturally somewhat 
difierent. The chief part, of course, is com- 
posed of theology. The fathers are in full force, 
some of them in the splendid Paris editions.- 
Other branches of knowledge have not,however, 
been neglected. The censorship of the press 
affects this convent but little. For them there is 
no forbidden fruit, and the convents are exactly 
the fittest asylums for writings persecuted by 
the censor; works, which in any other library, 
or in a bookseller's shop, would be seized by the 
police, are frequently to be found in cloisters 
M'here such unquiet productions are held to be 
in the quietest place. The monks know how to 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



65 



arrange these matters, only taking the precau- 
tion sometimes of placing such writings on the 
second row, behind others, or on the topmost 
shelves. The influence of these fine collections 
cannot be great, as they are the private property 
of the convents, and the books are never lent 
out. Nevertheless-, they are interesting wHth a 
view to the future; it is well to know where 
sucli literary materials are to be looked for; 
doubtless, the day will come when another 
Joseph will throw these noble halls open to the 
public, and declare their contents the property 
of the state. On this account I was glail to lind 
everywhere a goodly assemblage of our German 
historians, down to Luden, Menzel, and Pfister. 
The Monumenta Germanorum are also not 
wajiting. An historical-geographical work on 
Lower Austria, in thirty volumes, put me in a 
terrible fright. If this work, like Meidinger's 
Grammar, should arrive at a twentieth edition, 
one might cover a good portion of the three 
hundred (German) square miles of Lower 
Austria with the paper. If we were to use all 
the waste paper of this kind in Germany we 
might cover the whole surface of the globe, and 
perhaps paper up the sun besides. 

The Florian convent owns not less than seven 
hundred and eighty-seven houses and farms, or, 
as they express it here, so many "numbers," 
and yet it is only a "three-quarters" cloister. 
The greater number of the convents are only 
"half" or "quarter." Kremsminster is one of 
the few " entire cloisters." I never could learn 
from what measure these expressions of half and 
whole, &c., which are in constant use among 
the people, are taken, nor could the fathers them- 
selves give me any information. Perhaps it 
may be a mode of speech, remaining from the 
times M-hen the convents were rated for military 
contributions; Florian must then have paid fifty 
thousand florins, where Kremsminster paid 
eighty thousand. In those rimes, an archduke 
of Austria sometimes resided as a guest at St. 
Florian's, with four hundred andfitl:y horsemen 
and horses; the present emperors come much 
more modestly attended. The convent is in 
constant readiness for such visits. Here, and 
in all other Austrian convents, there is a suite 
of rooms called "the imperial apartments." 
The number of illustrious guests that have 
visited the Augustine lords spiritual, from the 
emperor Arnulph the child, down wards, is count- 
less — among them was Prince Eugene, the high- 
hearted conqueror of the Turks. He slept here, 
during his stay, on a splendid bedstead, at each 
of whose four corners a Turkish prisoner was 
chained in efligy. Pictures of the battles of 
Zenta, Mohacs, and Belgrade, adorned the walls, 
and every wax light in the antechamber, was 
borne by the figure of a Moor, carved in wood. 
All these are preserved as memorials to the 
present day. Pope Pius VL, on his memo- 
rable journey to Vienna, was entertained at St. 
Florian's Abbey, and from the balcony of his 
chamber, bestowed his blessing on not less than 
thirty thousand people. 

Emperors, princes, and popes, are not the 
only visitors: travelling students usually halt 
here in the vacations; some may always be 
fouhd in the rooms below, appropriated to their 
service. In one of them I found an enigmatical- 



looking piece of furniture, whose use I was at a 
loss to divine. My companion directed my at- 
tention, to an inscription on the front, which 
displayed the following spiritual reference to a 
stove: "Hoc in tumulo hiems arida oestatis ossa 
consumit." 

In almost all the conventual churches I found 
multitudes of redbreasts as regular inhabitants. 
In the sp!eijdid church of 8t. Florian, their plea- 
sant chirpings were the only praises to God I 
heard during my visit. The church servitor 
told me that, in the brooding season, their num- 
bers were so great, that the preacher's voice was 
often overpowered by their song. The sparrows 
keep to the outside of the roof; swallows come 
sometimes for years together, and then disap- 
pear again. 

Carlo Carlone was the architect of this church. 
This man's ear must have been well opened to 
the harmonies that lie in numbers, and grand 
proportions, for the height, breadth, and length 
of the church, the place and proportions of the 
windows, the stalls, corridors, and choir, the 
arches and pillars, form a whole so exquisitely 
symmetrical, that the musical impression, re- 
ceived on entering the place, is irresistible. The 
principal lines of the building are covered with 
the most solid, rich, and tasteful stuccoes. 
Round all the galleries, cornices, and ceilings, 
hundreds of angels are wreathed and grouped. 
Curtains, executed in the most masterly man- 
ner in plaster, hang in rich profusion over every 
door and passage; and the most beautiful gar- 
lands, wreaths of flowers, and arabesques, wind 
and droop in lavish abundance, and in the most 
graceful forms throughout. I must confess that 
I learnt, for the first time, here to know what 
sti>cco was, and what might be made of it. 

The church has three organs; the largest is 
in the background, opposite the high altar, and 
two smaller ones are in the choir. The largest, 
the mastenvork of an Austrian of the name of 
Christmann, has 5230 pipes, and the strongest 
of these, cast in the finest English tin, is thirty- 
two feet high, four feet and a half in circumfer- 
ence, and weighs five hundred weight. The 
" organ-basket," which supports the seat of the 
organist and the singers, displays the most beau- 
tiful and inimitable workmanship in carved 
wood. It has the figure of a giant basket, or 
balcony, formed of the thickestbush of acanthus- 
leaves. Below, the woodwork of this balcony 
is intermingled with that of the stalls and prayer- 
desks. The pillows of those seats and their 
canopy, consist partly of black fretted woods, 
and partly of speckled beech-wood, of which the 
massive blocks are in themselves curiosities. 
The whole range of stalls for the chapter exhibit 
the finest architectural drawing, and the greatest 
solidity of construction, and yet the minutiae are 
executed with a neatness and elegance such as 
are usually bestowed only on boxes destined for 
the reception of ladies' jewels or gentlemen's 
snuff. On a closer examination, every little 
knot and edge is found to be most artisncally 
and laboriously put together, and exquisitely 
polished. 

In one word, present arms and show honour 
due to the Austrian monks, all ye who so often 
contemn, without even knowing them. I must 
confess, that I desired nothing more than that 



66 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



Father Kurz and the other gentlemen might ac- 
cept my farewell pressure of the hand as it was 
meant, as a tolven of tlie most sincere goodwill 
and esteem. 



VISIT TO THE HOUSE OF AN AUSTRIAN 
PEASANT. 

The peasants of Upper and Lower Austria 
have, with the exception of some of the peasants 
of Lombardy, certainly reached a higher degree 
of wealth and freedom than any other peasants 
in the Austrian empire. Those of Galicia, Bo- 
hemia, and Hungary, are, on the whole, still 
serfs; the inhabitant of Illyria and the Tyrol is 
poor. There are parts, indeed, of all these pro- 
vinces where the land is better cultivated, and 
the peasants more free and opulent. Hanna, in 
Moravia, is celebrated for this, so is Zips, in 
Hungary; Saxonland, in Transylvania; Eger- 
thal, in IJohemia; and many rich Alpine valleys, 
are also remarkable exceptions. Neither ought 
we to. pity or despise the peasants of other parts 
of the monarchy as mere slaves, without duly 
estimating many alleviating circumstances. To 
take them all in all, however, it is not less cer- 
tain that the peasants of the Danube, in refer- 
ence to mental cultivation, solidity of character; 
firmness of position, and a recognition of their 
rights as men, surpass the majority of their 
fellow-subjects, as far as they do in agricultural 
knowledge and opulence. Among the richest 
and best known are those in the neighbourhood 
of St. Florian's Abbey. Some of them, indeed, 
are so distinguished, as to have had the honour, 
more than once, of receiving their emperor, and 
one of these is the much-talked-of " Meier in der 
Tann." Accompanied by a guide from the 
Abbey, I made my way, by a narrow footpath, 
through beautiful woods, over luxuriant mea- 
dows, and through well-cultivated fields and 
orchards to the farms of this wealthy peasant. 

The Florian and Austrian peasants in general, 
although more those above than below the Ens, 
live more frequently in solitary farm-houses in 
the midst of their lands, than in villages. " The 
peasants have all a double name; in the first 
place, a famdy name which is inherited by their 
childreu, and secondly, one as possessor of the 
farm, which parses to their successors only. 
These ofllcial names are no doubt extremely 
old, as old perhaps as the farms themselves. 
"Lehner, in Fohrenbach." "Meier im leeren 
Busch." "Zehnter, nearGommering." "Meier 
inderTann." "TheSchildhuber." "TheDin- 
delhuber," and the entire name of such a peasant 
sounds quite long and stately; for example, 
"John Plass, Meier in der Tann," "Joseph Fira- 
berger, the Schildhuber." In ordinary life the 
designation from the land is mitch mo.-e usual 
than the family name. It is more usual to say 
"the Schildhuber was here to day," than "Jo- 
seph Fimbeiger was here." The women are 
generally called by the family name, but in a 
manner differing from ours. A feminine ter- 
mination is attached, as xVIaria Fiinbergerm. the 
Moserm, instead of Frau Fimbeiger, Frau 
Moser, as we should say. " Meier in der Tann, 
ah, he has a house like a castle," said every one 
to me, and in fact the majority of these great 



farmhouses are built like castles -with four 
wings forming a quadrangle. The foot-pas- 
senger enters the dwelling-house in one wing by 
a narrow doorway, and the loaded wagons enter 
at another through a wider gate, and drive into 
the inner court. The stabling, cartsheds, grana- 
ries, barns, &c., are in the other wings. The 
building has two stories and has a stately exte- 
rior. 'I'he house is well furnished with pious 
sentences over the doors, both within and with- 
out, and all the household utensils down to the 
plates, are garnished with verses and passages 
from the Bible. At the house of " Meier in der 
Tann," I found a flour-sack, speaking in the fir-st 
person, and where we less poetical North Ger- 
mans would have placed simply a stamp, or 
have contented ourselves with the name, Fritz 
Meier, the flour-sack had it: 



" Bp it known to pvpry man 
1 belong 10 Meier iu itie Tann " 

The principal chamber in the house is called 
" Meier's room." It is the itsual place of assem- 
bly of the members of the family, and also the 
eating-room; here the women sit at their spin- 
ning in the winter, or at au}"^ other of the minor 
domestic occupations. Near it are the bed- 
chambers of the heads of the family and their 
children, and opposite, on the other side of the 
passage those of the maids and the men. " Meier 
in der Tann" has, moreover, his private room 
of business. 

On the second story were the best rooms for 
guests, and the store-rooms. In these " Sunday 
rooms" many have the portraits of their proge- 
nitors. Those of " Meier in der Tann," were all 
clothed from head to foot in raven-black, and 
looked like so many Venetian nobles. Here are 
always a number of beds with magnificent 
mountains of feathers and gay-coloured quilts, 
for any visitors who may happen to come. In 
these "Sunday rooms," in presses, chests, and 
drawers, the bridal finery, the treasures of linen, 
metal, and the holiday clothes of the wife, a 
black spencer, a black silk kiitel (so they call 
the best gown), and a pretty cap of otter-skin, 
surmounted by a star of pearls, are all stowed 
away, all things which in form and material re- 
mind us of Bavaria, whence there is little doubt 
this part of Austria was colonized. Then there 
is the kasfl (room) for fruit, in which are kept 
whole chests full of dried apples, pears, and 
plums; and a harness-room, where the abun- 
dance, order, and simple ornament, please more 
than all the brilliant show and rigid accuracy 
of a suite of royal stables. In many peasants' 
houses in this part of the country, there are not 
less than forty rooms. 

The most celebrated race of horses in all the 
countries between Munich and Vienna, south of 
the Danube, is the Finzgauer. These are large, 
magnificent animals, brought here as coUs, and 
reared on the fine meadows of the Danube.- 
They are used awhile for agricultural labours, 
and then sent to Vienna, where these huge ani- 
mals are met with in the service of the butchers 
and brewers. 

The stock of horned cattle on the Danube is 
constantly supplied from the mountain pastures, 
where the breeding of cattle is often the only 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



67 



possible occupation. From Pinzgau, Pongau, 
and the Styrian Alps, the cattle descend to the 
plains to fill up the gaps made by death and the 
butcher, and which the smaller cattle production 
of the plains cannot sufficiently su])ply. The 
most remarkable of the arrangements for stall- 
fed animals are the pigsties. The lodgings for 
swine iji Austria are lofty spaces filled Avith long 
rows of chests, shut in on all sides, and left open 
at the top. Each of these chests is the dwell- 
ing-place of a pig. In general they are made of 
thick beams, but some of the richer fanners 
have them of solid smooth hewn blocks of free- 
stone.' Every pig has his food in his own stall. 
In this manner each animal enjoys constantly 
fresh air, and yet is closely enough shut up to 
gfrow fat at his leisure. This system of solitary 
confinement protects them from each other, and 
the greatest cleanliness is preserved among 
these unclean brutes. More perfect swinish ac- 
commodations, are not, I believe, to be found in 
Europe. Circe could have had no better for 
Ulysses and his companions. 

The cider presses in an Austrian farmhouse 
are also worth seeing. The vine is not culti- 
vated ill Upper Austria, but cider is made on a 
verj' large scale, and an intoxicating drink is 
prepared irom pears as well as apples. The fruit 
is first crushed under a large stone, put in mo- 
tion by a horse, and is then put into the presses 
to complete the operation. In a large household 
there are sometimes ten or twelve such presses. 
Little as we esteem diis acid beverage, it is here 
an absolute necessity, and " Zehnter im Gom- 
mering," or " Meier im leeren Busch" would 
lose all his men-servants to-morrow, if they did 
not get tlieir due portion of" apple wine." Fur- 
ther up the Danube, in the land of beer-drinking 
Bavarians, the use of cider declines. Lower 
down the river the sour Austrian wine comes 
into use, and further on the sweet Hungarian. 

"Meier in der Tann," including his children, 
has not less than forty people in his house. He 
related to me many anecdotes of the emperor 
Francis and the archduke Maximilian, who had 
often stopped at his house. His wife and chil- 
dren, in the mean time, were making dumplings 
for the morrou-^s holiday. Strict order and dis- 
cipline were kept in the house, and behind the 
picture of the Saviour, on the wall, I saw stuck 
up that educational auxiliary which we gene- 
rally hide behind the piece of furniture that re- 
peats to us daily and hourly, the most agreeable, 
or disagreeable, truths. 

As "Meier in der Tann" accompanied me 
over his farmyard, and showed me his abun- 
dance of good things, I said to him, " You sell 
this rich produce in the city, no doubt?" " Nay," 
was his answer, "why should I sell it in the 
city"! I can eat it myself; it is better so." I 
afterwards learnt that this was a usual answer 
of the wealthy Austrian peasants to such ques- 
tions. "I can use it myself, it's better so." 

Two blooming, goodhumoured children ac- 
companied us, and gave me a friendly "God be 
■with you, God be with you," when -we reached 
the great trees surrounding the 3'ard (every one 
of tile yards, as usual, was surrounded with old 
trees); which I acknowledged in the same style, 
and returned to Edelsberg through all the rich 
lowlands, on which the rude, bleak mountain 



range casts down such black and envious looks. 
The richest peasant in Upper Austria is sup- 
posed to be Stedinger. I had occasion to visit 
him also, subsequently; but all these farms are 
as like each other as so many eggs. 

The personal service which the peasants are 
held to render to their superior lord, is trifling in 
real amount. It is, fur the most part, commuted 
for money. But the tithes, which are levied by 
the lords of the soil, the billeting of soldiers, the 
military conscription, to which the nobles are 
not subject, and the many imperial and seig- 
neurial taxes, press heavily on the peasants. As 
the land, however, is, on the whole, fertile, the 
people sober and diligent, and the law, despite 
its oppressive enactments, is administered in a 
spirit so favourable to the subject, that the em- 
peror Francis sometimes complained he could 
not obtain justice in his suits against his o-vvn 
peasants, agriculture, with 'all its disadvantages, 
is in the flourishing condition I have above 
described. 

An odd law prevails in this class — namely, 
that the farm descends to the youngest son in- 
stead of the eldest, on the death oi the father. 
It is supposed that by that time the elder sons 
are otherwise provided for, while the youngest 
may often need an inheritance. Witli us the 
more rational notion prevails that the eldest son, 
as the ablest and most natural guardian of the 
younger branches, must first be enabled to sup- 
ply efl'ectually the place of the parent. 



PUBLIC LIBRARY. ^ 

The water of the Danube is of the colour of 
aqua marine, that of the Rhine emerald green. 
The waters of the Danube are thick, those of 
the Rhine transparent; the colour of the former 
may probably be aflected by the slime it brings 
with it, and which is of a milky green as if a 
quantity of serpentine stone dust were mingled 
with the quartz sand. This slime is deposited 
in the cold baths which are erected along the 
banks of the river. The waters of the Danube 
seemed to me much colder than those of the 
other great rivers of Germany, and a bath in its 
green waters is certainly one of the most re- 
freshing enjoyments that can be oflfered to the 
wearied body. 

I had just come out of such a one, and was 
taking my last walk through the stress of Linz, 
when I came upon the Bibliotheci publica of 
the Lyceum, whereon stands the beautiful Greek 
inscription, -iv-xni; l:nfi~<tv (the house for the heal- 
ing and refreshment of the soul). What could 
be more opportune? I entered; the first name 
I heard here, as in nearly every public institu- 
tion in Austria, was that of .Joseph the Second. 
He was the founder of this and many other 
libraries. He induced or compelled the wealthy 
convents to furnish books, and thus formed in 
the principal cities of the monarchy, collections 
accessible to all, from treasures that had before 
been hidden. 

I found here, as in all other Austrian libraries, 
Rotteck's History of the World, and the ''Sem- 
plice Verita upposta olle menzogne di Enrico Mis- 
let/,'' a work written by an Italian, ip answer to 
a book published by the Englishmian, in coo- 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



demnation of the Austrian system of govern- 
ment in Italy. 

In many Austrian libraries the forhidtlen fruit 
is enthroned high above the vellum-bound vol- 
umes of theology; it is placed there purposely, 
lest the grown children should over-eat them- 
selves: the same arrangement I observed here; 
and moreover, the ladder by which it was to be 
reached, was so short, that it was at the risk of 
my life, standing on the topmost step, that I suc- 
ceeded in obtaining a glance into these regions. 
I remarked there,"The Triumph of Philosophy," 
Moser's "Patriotic Fantasies," his "Political 
Truths," and similar works. A second dive 
which I ventured upon, placed two volumes of 
Buftbn's Natural History in my hand. I could 
look on this with tolerable indiiference; but to 
the Austrian student, how costly must appear 
this forbidden, and, therefore, doubly sweet fruii! 
Doubtless as the finest cherries on the tree's top- 
most branch to ihi- .'VPS of the boy who is unable 
to reach the unsicady crown. 

The most remarkable part of the collection, 
was a copy of Luther's complete works, and 
moreover, the oldest edition. They were ex- 
tremely dusty, and I asked the attendant whe- 
ther they were much used. "No," said he; "in 
the thirty years I have been here, I have never 
taken them down." Perhaps they were pro- 
cured at a time when some hopes of refuting 
Luther's heresies were still cherished, and they 
have never been looked at since. Perhaps the 
time may not be far distant when Austria will 
allow the ladders in her libraries to be made a 
little longer, or bring the spirits now abandoned 
to the dust and the spiders, a little lower down; 
the library may then m a loftier sense than now 
become the ^u^"' '»'^?^''*. ^"d the soul may then 
luxuriate here in as refreshing a bath, as^ the 
body enjoys in the quickening waters of the 
Danube. In this, perhaps, approaching epoch, 
such old Gothic laws and prohibitions will not 
be renewed, as we now see carved in stone, on 
the Town-house of Linz. This singular inscrip- 
tion runs thus: 

"His Roman and Imperial Majesty, King of 
Hungary and Bohemia, our most gracious lord 
wills" and commands, that no one, be he who he 
may, presume in or before this free land house 
to carry arms, or to wrestle, or fight, or make 
any riot whuttcer. Whoever act in any wise con- 
trary to this prohibition, will be punished with 
all seve^iity in life and limb. Renewed 1568, 
1679, 174.5#1825." 

I thought at first that this singular and harshly- 
sounding prohibhion had only been renewed for 
the sake of its historical curiosity; but a native 
of Linz assured me that it was seriously meant 
to infuse terror, and was deemed one of the pri- 
vileges and immunities of the Town-house. 



THE PICTURE-GALLERY BETWEEN 
LINZ AND VIENNA. 

The portion of the Danube lying between 
Linz and Vienna, is certainly the finest part of 
the great river, for here nature and art have 
united to adorn its shores, as they have done 
nowhere 0'se along the whole sixteen hundred 
miles of «« course. In one half-day to see all 



these beautiful, great, graceful, and interesting 
objects, with all their historical monuments and 
natural beauties, pass before one's eyes, seem.s 
an enchanted dream, and keeps the susceptible 
mind in a constant state of intoxication. 

The Romans, while they held these lands, 
seem, however, to have felt no such intoxica- 
tion; to them an abode by the shores of the Da- 
nube was rather a dream of a heavy and op- 
pressive kind, yet it was exactly this beautiful 
part of its banks as far as Vindobona, that was 
the site of their most important battles with the 
Germans. The left bank they called the fore- 
head of Germany {Fruns Gtrmaniie), and tiie eye- 
brows of the Danube {Supercilia Mkri). The 
wrinkles, excrescences, jagged rocks, and horns 
of Germany's rude front, may have figured 
strangely in the letters to their friends in Italy 
t>om these cold northern bcmndaries of their 
beautiful land. Here, if anywhere on earth, the 
mutability of matter and the course of events 
may be admired. The eyebrows of the Danube 
are now smoothed beneath the hatchet and the 
plough; the fields are smiling under the fairest 
and richest cuhivation, and of the forests only 
so much remains as the painter would desire to 
preserve, in order to enrich and elevate the 
softer expression of the meadow and the corn- 
field. The forehead of Germany and what was 
its extreme frontier, are now the core of a great 
monarchy; the rejected stone is become the foun- 
dation and corner-stone of the builduig, for here 
lies the cradle of the Austrian monarchy. 

Strangers from all lands now come to gaze 
on the cities that have arisen round the Roman 
camp-station on the now smooth Fruns Ger- 
nimiia;, and the subilued back of the wild Isther. 
Years ago, the English and North Germans 
heeded not the inconveniences of the Danube 
navigation; but now, that the establishment of 
steamboats has increased the facilities ten or 
twenty fold, the river is visited even by those 
that dwell near it. Monks now wander from 
their cloister and gaze on these new wonders. 
Students throng from all parts, for now even 
their slender .purses suffioe for a voyage down. 
the Danube; employes, whose short leave of ab- 
sence did not formerly permit such excursions, 
now take their places, with their wives and 
children, in the handsome cabins, and float up 
and down the Danube under the protection of 
the public at large. In these days of steam- 
boats, people have found feet who had none be- 
fore, some have got seven-league boots who 
possessed before but ordinary shoes, purses 
have become fuller, and days longer. 

At six o'clock in the morning, on the fifth of 
August, the bell of the steamboat the Archduke 
Stephen, summoned its passengers, specimens 
of all the above-mentioned classes of society, 
crowded together. There were Englishmen who 
spoke not one word of German, monks with 
shaven crowns, ladies with children, whiskered 
Hungarians, Vienna dandies with eye-glasses 
instead of eyes in tlieir heads, Berlin travellers 
with Donnerwelter in their mouths, and many 
others laden with cloaks and wraps, liats and 
bandboxes, parasols and umbrellas, sticks, 
pipes, chests, and trunks. It was just such 
weather as according to the imagination of the 
Romans must generally have prevailed in 



KOHLS AUSTRIA. 



" nebulnsa Ger mania." A thick fog hung like an 
impenetrable veil over the Alpine chain, and 
hid the black and gold arabesque borders of the 
towers of Linz. From out the fog distilled a 
fine rain, which gradually increased, till we were 
threatened with a day to encliant all the snails 
and ducks in the country. We poor passengers 
who thronged the decks of the Archduke Stephen 
as thickly as the wild ducks did the reedy inlets 
of the Danube, crept like snails in sunshine 
under our mantles and umbrellas, while those 
who could find a place, took shelter in the cabins. 

The ^eantiful changes of scenery afforded by 
the city of Linz and its environs, round which 
the Danube sweeps almost in a semicircle, 
passed unnoticed by; indeed, as far as I was 
personally concerned, I could discern objects 
onlj'so far as the circumference of my umbrella 
reached, from whose extremity fell a heavy 
shower of drops, and my companions were more 
anxious about the light of their cigars, than the 
light of travelling inspiration. We were all 
deplorably dull and out of tune; and foresaw not 
what was preparing for us overhead, nor what 
a day was before us. 

At the very beginning of our journey, as I 
stepped from the bridge that led to the vessel, I 
had the good fortune to get such a thrust in the 
side from the trunk of one of the passengers, 
that I thanked God in silence for the elastic 
strength of my ribs. I say the good fortune, 
because the punch was such a hearty one, that 
the man was not content with the usual excusez 
or pardon, Mimsieiir, with which we usually 
satisfy ourselves on such occasions, but came 
to me again after he had stowed away his box, 
seized my hand, begged my pardon a thousand 
times, and inquired most anxiously whether I 
was hurt. Thus, among so rnany strangers, I 
suddenly found a friend, whom I might not have 
acquired for hours by the observance of the 
conventional ceremonies which condemn us so 
long to silence, until some unexpected occur- 
rence l)rings us nearer to each other. 

My new acquaintance was a man of business; 
he had followed the Danube in all its windings, 
and had lived from his youth upon its banks. 
M'hile he sat by me I allowed the useful to take 
precedence of the beautiful for a time, and took 
a lesson from him on the constitution of the bed 
of the Danube, and the course of traffic on its 
waters, and so long as the rain continues I will 
share with the reader the information I acquired. 

The Danube,hemmed in by mountains, flows 
by Linz in an unbroken stream. Below the city 
it begins to expand, embracing many large and 
smaller islands, and dividing into many arms, 
one of which may be considered the main artery. 
Thus it continues till it reaches the celebrated 
whirlpool near Grein, where all its waters, 
uniting in one channel, (low on majestically for 
forty miles, till they have worked their way 
throuQ;h the mountains and narrow passes near 
the city of Krems, and coming to level ground 
again, divide, forming arms and islands beyond 
Vienna. The condition of the water in this 
varying and sometimes obstructed course, and 
its consequent practicability for trade and navi- 
gation is very various, and hence many pecu- 
liar words descriptive of it have been invented, 
which are not known on other rivers. 



The main stream, which must offer the prin- 
cipal course of navigation, is called the " Nan- 
fuhrt" and the steersmen, who must know it 
accurately, and some of whom are alwa3's on 
board of the steamboats, are named Naufiirch, 
or Nuu guides. Tiie Nau channel undergoes 
little or no change in the narrow passes, but ia 
the neighbourhood of the islands, the furious 
rapidity of the cnrrent changes it very often; 
sometimes an arm of the stream, navigable be- 
forp, will close, and another open that was for- 
mer!}' quite impracticable. The larger branches 
are called arms, but the smaller ones are de- 
nominated "Rnnze," and they are distinguished 
again as great or little " liunze." The little 
creeks and broader expanses, which are often 
found shut in between the sandbanks and the 
islands, or peninsulas, are called lakes. Among 
these lakes a constant change is taking place; 
sometimes they burst their boundary, the stag- 
nant water becomes current, and the lake is 
again a "Rimze.'" The subsiding matter con- 
tained in the Danube, is called " Bach;^ries" 
" Sfronifrries," or " Schutt," The sandbanks 
formed by this '■'■grie/i" are not called sandbanks, 
but " Hciufen" or heaps. If these banks are 
formed not of sand, but of rock, and remain 
under the surface of the water, they are named 
in the Danube language Kuo^eln, or bullets, per- 
haps from the rounded forms of all these rocks. 

If these " Haiifen" rise high out of the water, 
and are overgrown with wood, they are called 
Alien, or meadows. These meadows, when 
covered with aspens, alders, poplars maples, 
willows, and shrubs of all kinds, atford cover 
for innumerable game; even stags are found 
there, while the lakes and Runze are thronged 
with waterfowl, wild ducks and geese, herons, 
cranes, plovers, and especially a bird called 
"fisher" by the people of the country. 

These meadows are often inundated in the 
course of the year. When the land has obtained 
such a height that it can be subjected to regular 
cultivation, the formation of the Danube island 
is completed. But all thi'' s formations are sub- 
ject to constant change. Now a sandbank is 
formed where before it was deep water; no\5' 
the stream is gnawing at an island it slowly 
raised centuries before. Here a huufe is raised 
to an "Au" or meadow, and overgrown with 
brush, which, in the course of time, changes to 
a wood, there man is turning to profit the first 
turf, which he hopes will one day become arable 
land. Promontories, peninsulas, and natural 
dikes are thrown together by the waves on one 
side, while, on the other, they are wearing away 
and destroying others, and thus the wild river- 
god tosses about in his procrustean bed, which 
he finds now too narrow, and now too spacious. 

Such places, where the water is undermining 
the shore, are called Bruchircsliille, or break- 
banks, and here the beavers of the Danube have 
their especial dwelling. By the shore {am Vftr) 
means a narrower part of the river where" the 
banks approach, and there is a ferry. 

The pa'^sage down the Danube is the " Nab- 
fahrt," that against the stream is the " Naii- 
fahrt."* The expressions mountain and valley 
passage, which are in use on the Rhine, are not 



Evident corruptions of hinah and hinaul. 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



known here. An Austrian sailor whom I ques- 
tioned about it, answered — "Mountain and valley 
passage! nay we know nothing about such things 
here. How is that possible] How can we get 
over mountains and through valleys." 

For the " Nal/fa/ir(" the beforenamed Nau 
pilots are recjiiired; but when they are going 
against the stream, several vessels are usually 
fastened together. We often see two or three 
large and several smaller vessels so chained 
together, and such a flotilla, with the necessary 
team, is called a Ge^enfuhr, or countercourse. 
These countercourses often require from thirty 
to forty horses, and sometimes more. On every 
horse a man is mounted, and the whole squadron 
is commanded by an old experienced out-rider, 
called the Wnghals or Sfan«;enreiler (daredevil 
or pole-rider), because his baton of office is a 
long pole, with which he makes signals, and 
sounds the river. The other riders are called 
the " Yodels." The commands issued by the 
pole-rider, or which are issued to him from the 
ship, ai'e immediately repeated by the whole 
corps of " Yiidels," in a wild cry. The words 
of command are generally shortened to mere 
interjections, as " //o/ ho.'" (Halt, halt,) or 
" Lasse ha!" (Let them go on.) Scarcely has 
the pole-rider, or steersman from the ship, sent 
the sound slowly through the air, than it is taken 
up by forty throats, and forty whips, and four 
times forty hoofs, are arrested or set in motion. 
. The horses ridden by the " Yodck" are gene- 
rally Pinzgauer horses, but are all called Traun 
horses along this part of the Danube, perhaps 
because the greater number of the articles ex- 
ported from Pinzgau, find their way to the 
Danube through Traun valley. 

The roads on the banks of the Danube are 
often very bad; the great meadows and reedy 
islands are mostly swampy, hence artificial 
towing-paths for the horses are very necessary. 
The roads are named " Leinpfad" by the Rhine, 
and here, the " Huffschlug" or " Treppehueg." 
These " Treppelwegi" are sometimes on one 
side of the river, and <- unetimes on the other, 
and then a frequent halting, and shipping over 
of the horses becomes unavoidable. For the 
long tracts of i)assage where the banks are not 
passable, or where the " Naufahri" is very dis- 
tant from them, the horses must go into the 
water, and it may therefore be easily imagined 
how dangerous a service they and their "Yodels" 
have to perform. 

The large vessels that navigate this part of 
the Danube, are called " Hohenaue?:" They 
carry two thousand hundred weight of goods. 
JXext to them in importance, are the Kehlheimers. 
The Hohenauers go only down the river, and 
though larger, are worse built than the Kehlhei- 
mers, which pass both up and down. Then 
again there are the Gamsels and Flatten, and 
the Zilkn (boats). The latter, which are at- 
tached to the larger Hohenaner and Kehlheimer, 
are called supplements (iicbenhei). Again those 
vessels used to convey the "Yodels" and their 
horses to the other side, have their peculiar 
name, "■Schwemmer." 

A complete reform, at present, awaits the 
whole of the Danube shipping; in fact, it has 
already begun. The introduction of steam- 
vessels compels all manner of improvement. 



I shall have occasion, hereafter, to mention how 

even the ordinary vessels for the navigation of 
the river have begun to be constructed on a 
better plan than formerly. 

The Danube boatmen have a peculiar termi- 
nology for all natural appearances, objects, and 
accidents. A calm is the wind's holiday, (uvwrf- 
feier). The ship is "geivappf," they say, when 
the waves strike the sides and fill it with water, 
if it be too heavily laden, or when it is too 
strongly impelled by the " Yodels." But a book 
might be filled with these things. Enough for 
the useful; turn we now to the agreeable. 

The rain, which, in the bottomless depths of 
our despair, we had expected was about to spoil' 
our pleasure entirely, had already ceased. On 
the wings of steam, we were rapidly borne 
through the region of rain, and came to a part 
where all looked cheerful again. A bright sun 
descended on our dewy fields of cloaks, and 
drank up the moisture that rested on them and 
on the ringlets of the ladies. Steyeregg, the 
castle of old Khuenringer; Lichtenberg, the seat 
of the Starhembergs and Schallenbergs; Tillys- 
burg, the old fortress bestowed on his veteran 
general, Tilly, by the emperor Ferdinand; and 
Spielberg, the seat of the knights of Spielberg, 
and afterwards of the lords of Weissenwolf, 
with many other beautiful castles and villages, 
were lost to us; only thus much the rain had 
allowed us to observe, that the site of many of 
these was admirably adapted for pillage on 
the river. Spielberg, for instance, lies, like a 
beaver-village, behind the bushy meadows in 
the middle of the islands, close to the interior 
harbour of a "Runze," and had, by means of 
it, two water-passages to the Danube, so that 
many a stratagem of the lords of Spielberg 
may have been suggested by the position. The 
Rhine, which in that portion of it flowing 
between Mainz and Bonn, is so often com- 
pared to this part of the Danube, has nothing 
of this wild island-rneadow scenery. Many 
admire tlie Rhine the more for this want; but 
I must confess, their presence lent an addi- 
tional charm to the Danube in my eyes. These 
castles, hidden in the reeds — these islands, 
tenanted by a solitary fisherman — these widely- 
spreading river-veins, losing themselves awhile 
in the wilderness, and then again emerging, 
bright and clear, from the woods, to unite once 
more with the great slream (an island has, in 
itself, something poetical, and is an object that 
can scarcely be repeated too often) — in a word, 
all this vehement motion, and the almost ante- 
diluvian events recorded of the Danube, opposed 
to the rich cultivation, the historical associa- 
tions, and the picturesque views on its banks, 
form a contrast wholly wanting to the Rhine. 
There the cultivation is more striking, almost 
too striking; on the Danube, Nature is wilder — 
many will add, too wild. 

St!^ Peter's, in the meadows, Abelsberg, and 
Pulgarn, were lost to us by the rain. At the 
mouth of the Ens, on the frontier line between 
the two Archduchies, where the fine weather re- 
gion began, that picture-gallery first became 
visible, to whiih the "Naufahrt" of the Danube 
represented the corridor, and the deck of the 
steamboat the rolling chair. 

The first piece which presented itself was 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



71 



kfauthausen, opposite the mouth of the Ens, 
Phe place is extremely old, and lies close to the 
bore, with a ruinous, tower-like castle in its 
acinity. Tiie antique houses crowded together 
n a few narrow streets, give us double plea- 
ure: first, as alibrdins picturesque objects, and 
hen on account of the pleasant reflection, that 
ve are not obliged to live in them. Behind the 
own rise the hills containing the celebrated 
tone-quarries, from which a beautiful kind of 
jranite has been long obtained, though at the 
;ost of much labour, for the use of the ca])ital. 
in old German church (St. Nicholas's) rears its 
lead in the midst, and a flying bridge in the 
[►eground conveys passengers in the old, trou- 
)lesome fashion, over the animated stream. The 
teamboat stopped just long enough to catch 
hese scanty features of the landscape, and to 
)ut a beautiful Hungarian countess, and her yet 
airer daughters, into a boat. I had been long 
ejoicing in the sunshine of their aspect, when 
hey vanished with the view of Mauthausen, 
vhose foreground they so much embellished, 
rhey were going to pay a visit of some days at 
riuirheim, as they informed me. 

At the mouth of the Ens, opposite Mauthau- 
en, there is not much to be seen, as the stream 
tself flows through a low foreland, its own 
brmation, into the Danube. But there is the 
nore to be thought about; for, considered either 
n an historical or geographical point of view, 
t is certainly the most important and interest- 
ng spot between Linz and Vienna. I had often 
eilected on the importance of this Ens-embou- 
hure, and asked myself why the Austrians had 
nade their lands to lie on either side of the Ens, 
ather than on either side of the Danube. Wah 
ny map of the Danube country betbre me, I 
•ondered on the subject, and came to this con- 
tusion. 

'J'he Danube, this mighty navigable river has 
)een the great electric conductor for all those na- 
ions whom the course of events brought within 
ts territory. They clung to it as the main ar- 
ery of their life, and spread themselves from 
ts shores on either side, as their various rela- 
ions permitted. Thus Hungary formed itself 
m boih sides of the Danube, so did Austria, 
Javaria, and Swabia, like pearls on one string. 
\.bove and below the stream also, the various 
ribes settled on its tributaries, the Iller, the Inn, 
Vt archil 
up theTa 
ongitudinally by the Danube, into many portions; 
he tribes made these streams their boundaries, 
ind enclosed their territory as these natural divi- 
ions prescribed. Thus the Iller sepa<j^es the 
tales of Wirtemberg and Bavaria; the Lech, 
ome of the tivvabian nations from Bavaria; the 
nn runs between Bavaria and the Archduchy 
pf Austria; the March and the Leitha between 
Austria and Hungary; the Drave between Hun- 
gary and Slavonia; the Save between Slavonia 
md Turkey. Bat between the Inn and the 
tlarch, there is no considerable incision in the 
and except the Traun and the Ens. The Ens 
leing near the middle of this strip of laud, was 
larticularly adapted for a subdivision, the more 
o, because its course is exactly rectangula'r to 
he main stream of the Danube. 

It has been before mentioned that the Romans 



he Ens, the Leitha, and March^lhe Drave, and 
5ave. These rivers cut up theTand connected 



recognised the importance of these separating 
valleys, and therefore partitioned their Noricunt, 
ripense into nearly the same sections that are 
now called above and below the Ens. At the 
month of the Ens they had their largest settle- 
ment in this neighbourhood. Laureacum, after- 
wards Lorch, where a legion had its stationary 
camp, a Dux limit is his abode, and a fleet its 
harbour. Alter the time of the Romans, on the 
site of Lorch, arose the present Ens, celebrated 
in the Nibelungenlied,and important on account 
of its commerce. The empire of Charlemagne 
extended at first only as far as the Etis; and 
when, in the year.791, he had resolved on his 
great campaign against the Avares, it was open- 
ed on the banks of this river, from which he 
drove them back to the next arm of the Danube, 
the Raab. When the Hungarians first entered 
the lands of the Danube, in the reignof Arnulph 
the Child, the Ens was long the limit of their 
German kingdom. That a toll was long levied 
at Mauthausen, near the mouth of the Ens, as if 
entering a foreign country, was another result 
of the peculiar division of the land by the Ens. 
'I'he same causes that rendered this place the 
centre of traffic, have also given rise to the 
many struggles and battles that have been fought 
for the possession of it. The mouth of the Ens 
has enough of such encounters to relate, from 
the uninterrupted hostilities of the Romans, to 
t!',e last campaign in this place, where even Na- 
poleon saw cause to shudder at the horrors of a 
battle-field. 

The many fields and islands which the Danube 
forms here, presents a countless succession of 
pictures in the Dutch style, producing most sin- 
gular effects among the grand mountain land- 
scapes. A fisherman may be seen on the low 
shore, busied with the repair of a huge net, 
called in the language of the Danube a "/a«ie/," 
an enormous drag-net, attached to the trunk of 
a tree sunk in the river. Here you behold a 
water-mill in the centre of a rapid stream, with 
a low island overgrown with willows and pop- 
lars close by, so little raised above the level of 
the water, that some of the bushes are washed 
by the rushing current. A miller is sitting on 
the end of a beam projecting over the water, 
busied in some repairs. There you see a little 
harbour for the shipment of wood. Now again, 
the broad stream is visible Hard by is a store of 
wood, felled in the great water-meadows. Some 
people are engaged in loading a small vessel 
with this timber for Vienna. Around, nothing 
is to be seen but water and solitary wooded 
meadows. 

And all these pictures have the advantage of 
beingwellpreserved.thecoloursbrightaudlresh, 
the varnish incomparable. Even the beavers, 
which have their dwelling here, do them no in 
jury, but, on the contrary, add to the effect. 
These wonderful animals are very numerous 
on the river between Linz and Vienna. It is 
singular enough that the progress of civiliza- 
tion should not have scared them away, and that 
they should be more numerous liere than in 
parts so much wilder of the middle Danube; 
they are eagerly pursued, both for their skins 
and their testicles; and the worth of the whole 
beaver, when the latter are good, is estimated 
at from fifty to sixty, and even one hundred 



72 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



florins. The beavers build their dwellings most- 
1}' on the " breaking shores" before mentioned, 
and thence make excursions into the water 
meadows, where, like the woodcuiters, they fell 
the trees, especially the aspens and poplars, 
■whose wood is not too hard, and of which the 
thick, fleshy, leathery rind constitutes their fa- 
vourite food. These beaver-houses are difficult 
to find, as the animals place the entrance always 
under the water, and burrow upwards, and this 
upper part, which is properly their dwelling, is 
built with wood, and kept dry. Below, the door 
and fore-court of their house are covered with 
•water, into which they plunge on any alarm. 
''One of the most interesting occupations to be 
met with on the Danube, is to watch these crea- 
tures at their work," said a gentleman to me, 
who, as a sportsman and lover of natural history, 
had paid great attention to them, and kept some 
beavers prisoners on his estate. " They are as 
comic in their gestures as monkeys, and as 
active and adroit at their work as persons who 
have not a minute to lose. With their really 
formidable teeth they hew down the trees like 
skilful woodmen, by a few well-directed strokes, 
and cut them into blocks. These blocks they 
carry like poodles to their dwellings, where they 
fix tiiem with clay, which they lay on with their 
tails. They go splashing through the water 
pushing the blocks of wood, jostling and thrust- 
ing one another aside, as if they were working 
against one another for a wager. I have never 
seen them driving piles with their tails as some 
persons assert, nor do I think so soft an instru- 
ment adapted for such work. They are accus- 
tomed, however, to strike the surface of the 
water with their tails, sometimes apparently out 
of mere sport and wantonness, but sometimes, 
probably, when pursued by an enemy, it is done 
to cover their retreat under water by dashing 
the spray in the face of the pursuer. They are 
very difficult to catch. To dig them out hke 
badgers is impossible, from the construction of 
their caves. To surprise them is no easy mat- 
ter, on account of their quickness and foresight. 
They are generally caught in traps. As, unlike 
carnivorous animals, they find their food every- 
where in nature, these traps cannot be con- 
structed nor baited on the usual principle; the 
most delicate twig of poplar would be little at- 
traction to them; it is therefore necessary to 
place a great number of traps in their way, and 
to be very cautious in so doing, as they scent 
iron very readily. I once laid fifteen traps in 
the neighbourhood of a beaver Village, and was 
fortunate enough to catch a couple of thought- 
less wanderers from the straight path. The 
next night I was unsuccessful, and so for ten 
successively. No doubt the mishap of their 
two comrades had become known. throughout 
the colony, and all kept themselves within their 
houses. At last hunger or ennui drove them 
out once more, and on the eleventh night I 
caught another, evidently much reduced by 
fasting. But that was the last; the beavers took 
my intrusion so much amiss, that they aban- 
doned the colony, nor could I learn where they 
had emigrated to; — in that neighbourhood no 
beaver has since been found." 

The finest views on the Danube begin about 
six (German) miles below Linz, at WaJlsee; 



and truly,! believe, the least enthtisiastic person 
in the world must,.ha\"e felt himself enraptured 
at the sight of so magnificent a spectacle. Only 
in a series of dithyramljics, and to the accom- 
paniment of the harp, are they worthily to be 
sung! I could have fancied myself sitting in 
some miraculous giant kaleidoscope; but ruins, 
castles, con v<mts, palaces, smiling villages, snug 
towns, hermitages, distant mountains, towers, 
broad valleys, and deep ravines, sleep preci- 
pices, fertile meadows, were the objects that 
produced these wonderful efiects, instead of 
fragments of moss, beans, spangles, and bits qf 
grass. Every stroke of the steam-engine wrought 
a new and yet more beautil'ul change, as if <tt 
magician had held the strings and pulled them 
always at the precise moment. Sometimes 
mountains hemmed us in on all sides, and we 
seemed carried over some mountain lake; an- 
other turn, and we shot as it were through a 
long chain of lakes. The steamer rushes on as 
if there were no such thing as a rock to be 
feared around. To a certainty we shall strike 
upon that at the corner! — no — a strong pressure 
from the hand of the experienced helmsman and 
we double the rock, a new opening is revealed, 
and new wonders displayed far and near. In 
such sudden turns of the vessel, often executed 
in a half circle of very short radius, we obtain 
through the sails and rigging and the twelve 
cabin windows, a cascade of vieAvs and images, 
if I may use the expression, in which all indi- 
viduality is lost, and the effect of the whole upon 
the mind is perfectly intoxicating. A painter of 
any susceptibility must, I think, sometimes shut 
his eyes, that he may not lose all self-command, 
and leap over the side of the vessel. 

The Volcanic powers, which, in the times of 
Olim., pierced and reformed the surface of our 
earth, shot across in the neighbourhood of Grein 
from the north, and threw up a dam from the 
Bohemian forest to the Alps, which formed a 
powerful obstacle to the waves flowing from the 
west. At this dam the waves long gnawed, till 
at last they made their way through. The lake, 
which had formed above the dam, flowed over, 
and the Danube burst through the narrow pass 
to a wider field beyond. Here and there, by the 
side of the cleft, fragments of rock had remained 
in and under the water, and so was formed the 
celebrated whirlpool called the "Strum of 
Grein." », 

Greinen'm Austrian German means much the 
same as weinen (crying), and Greinslnirg (or 
the castle of tears,) lies close by the entrance 
of the whirlpool, and bears this tragical name, 
in the r^st of one of the loveliest prospects 
that crown the Danube. The river reflects the 
features of the fair castle and town in friendly 
greeting befi)re it dashes its waters tinged with 
the melancholy hue of the pine forests, over the 
rock of the "Strum." This occurs at least by 
the little island Worth, lying like a fallen column 
of the old dam in the gate of the whirlpool. 
From this column low ranges of rock cross the 
river diagonally at both sides, and join the high 
angular rooks of the shore. Some are already 
so worn away that they are now under water, 
while others stand pointed and jagged above. 
The former are called " Kuijreln" the latter " Ko- 
ckelt," or "Gehackel." The mass of waters 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



which passes to the south of the islet Worth, is 
called the entrance; that which pa-<ses to the 
north is divided by two lines of olid" into the 
"Wild cleft," the "Wild water," and the whirl- 
pool properly so called, and through this the 
emperor Joseph, by the labour of thirteen years, 
succeeded in removiaj:; the must dangerous ob- 
structions, and forming thenviin passage. 

Firstly the Danube rushes foaming over the 
"Kugelii" — the heavy dash is heard from afar — 
then it plunges into the "Ge/idcke/," where it 
surges yet more impetuously, and shoots along 
with a rapidity befitting Neptune's team of sea- 
horses. Our engine was slackened; for my part, 
I would willingly have lain at anchor here a 
while to enjoy the magnificent spectacle. 

The rock of the islet Worth is highly pic- 
turesque; it has several faces, and at the base, 
at the very extremity of the island, lies the old 
excrescence of a castle. On the summit of the 
rock, a huge cross rears itself, firm as faith in 
the midst of the storms of life, clinging last to 
the rock. Several images of saints are niched 
about the rock, some adorned with the votive 
oflerings of passing boatmen. Close to the en- 
trance of the whirlpool, little boats row along- 
side the larger vessels, with pictures of saints, 
which they offer for sale as amulets. But our 
reprobate steamer shot past them with the speed 
of an arrow, and prevented the poor people from 
levying a small tribute upon the piety or fear of 
the passengers. 

Opposite the rocks of Worth another'^iass 
shoots boldly into the water, bearing on its stern 
brow the ruins of the old castle of VVerfenstein. 
Here, it is said, Roman dust mingles with the 
German of the middle ages. The elsewhere 
broad Danube is here pressed within such nar- 
row limits, that a bold Tell might almost hope 
b}' a daring leap to reach Worth. 

The rocks of Werfensteinjoia the strong walls 
and abrupt precipices, of which they are only 
a small part, forming a dark pass of about half 
a mile. In the midst of this watery ravine, 
which must not be supposed to be tt;o narrow, 
the stream dashes along with uncontrolled vu»- 
lence. Some of these rocks have particular 
names, as the "house stone," the "hare's ear," 
&c., and others are crowned with ruins, among 
others with those of the cj^tles of Struden and 
Sarmingstein. Far above the cross of the rock 
of Worth, towers the church of St. Nicholas, 
the patron saint of the sailor?. At the foot of 
this church, in the market town of the same 
name, is a hospital founded in the year 1 144, 
for the relief of sufferers of whom the wild wa- 
ters then furnished, probably a greater number 
than in these days. 

' The beautiful and romantic, the singular, the 
pictuiesque, and the incomparable in this part 
of the Danube, are so abundant, that it is al- 
most as difficult to tear oneself from the de- 
scription as from the contemplation, though we 
are apt to regret afterwards the many words 
that have been spent in a vain endeavour to 
give an idea of the scene. A little below Wer- 
fenstein, the vessel struck against a rock; I 
know not whether from a change in the direc- 
tion of the numerous currents in the "Strudel "* 



or from pure awkwardness or carelessness ol 
the steersman, or unmanageableness of the ves- 
sel; I thought at first, when I saw the bowsprit 
advancing nearer and nearer, that it was done 
in the most perfect security and boldness of de- 
sign, aiid observed to an Englishman who was 
standing near me, "See how little danger the 
once so formidable Strudel has for our skilful 
and experienced navigators, and with what pre- 
cision they sieer in the very face of ths rock." 
Scarcely were the words out of my mouth, 
when tlie vessel struck against that very rock, 
and a regular panic showed itself in the while 
faces and blue lips of the numerous pat-sengers. 
The bowsprit snapped short off, an J hung on by 
the ropes, like a broken arm by the sinews. 
The ship being of course somewhat elevated in 
front, towards the rock, was proportionally de- 
pressed at the stern, so that the green waves of 
the jJanube dashed in through the cabin win- 
dows. One large Englishman stood in the cen- 
tre of the vessel, with his eyes riveted on the 
bowsprit and the rock, both hands in his 
pockets, and his legs apart, as if he hoped by 
thiji means to balance it. A young man curious 
to see what was going on, looked from the cabin 
window, and received the rough salute of the 
Danube over head and ears; and a lovely young 
married lady buried her face in her husband's 
bosom. Our vessel received a tremendous 
swing that brought the rudder round in front; 
the gilded bust of the Archduke Stephen at the 
prow, was also broken, and hung off to the side 
as if he declined having any thing more to do 
with us. "Stephen has got a good cull," said a 
Linzer peasant, when the first fright was over. 
The whcle was the work of a minute; like a 
waltzing couple, in the hurry of the dc.ice, 
brought into sudden contact with the foremost 
pair, move crabwise for a few seconds, and 
then with renewed vigour, pursue their whirling 
course, we reeled awhile, staggered sideways 
and backwards through the vortex, then plough- 
ing the waves with renewed vigour, brought 
the rudder once more to its place, and darted 
on in a straight line, as if nothing had hap- 
pened. We passed Sarblingstein, built by the 
emperor Ferdinand, to fortify the Danube against 
the Turks; Freinstein, where Charlemagne over- 
came duke Tassito; and Persenberg, whose mag- 
nificent imperial castle of that name, is renowned 
in the olden lime as the possession of the Mar- 
grave Engelschalk 11., who, a thousand years ago, 
fell in love with, and carried off, the daughter of 
the emperor Arnulph. We could not, however, 
devote to these interesting objects all the atten- 
tion they deserved, because we v/er" still too 
much occupied with our vessel, and our terrified 
fellow-passengers. 

Among the latter, in addition to the first inti- 
mate acquaintance, for whom I stood indebted 
to my collision with a travelling trunk, I had 
made several new iVicp'.. Nothing brings 
people so nearly together as a high degree of 
sympathy, either in joy or sorrow. The general 
lamentation over the rain with which the day be- 
gan, had softened some hearts; the pleasure and 
excitement caused by the enchanting scenery, 



That auch changes take place, is beyond a doubt; at 
6 



every rising of the tide, the waters have a different motion 
on the surface. 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



had assisted to thaw the icy incrustations where- 
with fashion encases us; and after the accident 
in t!ic ''S/nidcl," our souls all melted together 
into a sympathetic stream. How is it possible 
to resist when, on such occasions, a beautiful, 
timid woman, till then entirely a stranger to you, 
one with whom you have not before exchanged 
a word, and who has proudly and silently avoided 
every place where stood a stranger of the other 
sex, suddenly forgets all decorum, and seizing 
you by the arm, exclaims — "Ah, my dear good 
sir, w/ud is the matter?" How can you do other- 
wise than immediately grasp at the profl'ered 
friendship. In one way or another, by the time 
we had passed the castles of Weins and Per- 
scnberg, we all felt to one another like friends 
of long standing. If it be hard to depict the 
beauties of nature, it is not less so to pamt the 
joys of social intercourse, and I should esteem 
it one of the most dilficult taslcs I could impose 
on myself, if I were to attempi to give the reader 
a perfect picture of all the lut!e occurrences and 
pleasures of our Danube jouraey. What the 
wise man says of the gulden tree of life, and of 
the faint picture given of it in books, is true of 
the scenery of the Danube, and the saying* and 
doings of the company that tilled the steamer. 
It fidlows, then, that it would be better to give 
up description of any kind, and leave olf making 
books, and so it would, were it not that the 
reader has his own fancies, experiences, recol- 
lections, and wishes with which he supplies all 
omissions. If the author speaks of a castle 
crowning the brow of a rock, he is not satisfied, 
because he compares the meagerness of the ex- 
pression with the image that memory brings 
before his eye; but the reader does not heed il; 
at these words he builds a castle for himself, 
and, perhaps, a much finer one than the reality. 
And It is the same thing with a picture of an 
agreeable circle or party, the reader feels all 
that the author says or does not say, and recol- 
lections or wishes supply the wants of the text. 
We sat in the stern of our untiring steamer, 
and gaily passed the glass of social converse. 
London, Paris, and Vienna, had each its depu- 
ties in our circle; but Vienna, and I thanked 
heaven therefore, had the greatest number. The 
first deputy was a young actress, one of the 
most distinguished of the Burg theatre. 8he 
was returning from a professional tour, and re- 
lated, with much talent and vivacity, some of 
her experience of life both before and behind 
the curtain. In her joy at finding herself once 
more in her fair Austria, she never failed to 
correct my false pronunciation (according to 
Austrian rules) of the names of the various 
places we passed. "Not Marbach, Moaba is 
the name of that pretty village we have just 
passed; you must not say Neustadt, but Neish- 
tadel, and when you wish me joy on being at 
home again, you should not pronounce the word 
heiinath, we call it hoamaf." As the sun was 
then shining very brightly, I oOered her my 
Austrian lamprell, or umbrella, and asked her if 
she could protect herself with that, using the 
Austrian word prolekiren. This she Amnd quite 
'^delizio^r and laughed excessively. " Delizios" 
is a very favourite word with the Austrians; and 
where we say I laughed ((la Imhte ich\ they say 
da bin ichlaclitnd geworden. This last expres- 



sion pleases me extremely, and is, certainly, 
with many other Austrian phrases, a relic of tho 
middle ages. I have no mannerof doubt thatGotz 
Von Berlichingen and his comrades expressed 
themselves just so — " Jc/i bin kchend geworden." 

Next to Miss Be , I had almost betrayed 

her name — sat a fair native of Vienna, with her 
husband and a charming little daughter. She 
was returning from Italy, where her husband 
had filled some post in the Austrian service. 
We naturally spoke a great deal of the fair land 
" where the orange-trees bloom," and the young 
mother expressed herself on the subject with 
great animation. I found her, to my great as- 
tonishment, by no means inclined to do justice 
to the beautiful shores of the Danube. In the 
Linz theatre she had yawned over a farce por- 
traying some of the local absuidities of Vienna, 
and wliich had made me laugh till I cried again. 
She thought it "all excessively trivial; such 
things, so full of equivoque, so offensive to all 
morality, would never have been permitted ia 
Italj', where in this respect, as in many others, 
people Avere incomparably more delicate than 
in Germany." Her husband was more reserved 
in his praise and blame than his pretty wife. 
The liitle girl, a child about four years old, was 
a perfect Italian. She spoke not a word of 
German, but danced wildly about the deck, be- 
cause she should soon be " in caan no tra." Her 
mother said that she understood German per- 
fectly well, but would never speak, and had a 
decided aversion to it. I began hereupon in 
silence to ask myself, whether Austrians — even 
public othcers who remained a long time in 
Italy — all returned such bad patriots? Did even 
this beautiful Austria look sad after Italy] 
Would the many and much vaunted enjoyments 
it offered, be looked on as trilling and insignifl- 
cantl And is it peculiar to German nationality 
to exchange so lightly the mother-tongue for the 
more beautiful Italian; or do Italian children, 
brought up in Austria, imbibe a similar prefer- 
ence for German, and disinclination for Itahan? 

A tiresome Vienna dandy, who sat somewhat 
aside from us, mingled now and then in the 
conversation, but kept, for the most part, at 
some distance, and whispered to an elderly 
lady something mysterious about Countess 
Theresa, or the Princess Anna, or the Baroness 
Sophia, and made much mention of the Lich- 
tenstein, the Starhembcrg, the Furstenfeld, and 
other such universally-known persons, who, ac- 
cording to the Vienna '.Trammar, are to be named 
with the definite article. C'Hait un commerage 
emiobli par Ics grands nnms qu'on pronongait. 

Among the English there v.^as a courier, who 
had come from England to Linz in six days. 
He kept looking at a book from which a friend 
was detailing the remarkable objects to be seen 
on the shores of the Danube; and they both read 
as diligently as if all these interesting places 
had been a hundred miles of}', instead of lying 
right under their noses. 

We had also on board a sister and a novice 
of the newly-established order of the " German 
Sisters." This order was once united with that 
of the "German Brothers" in the east, for the 
tending of sick knights, but did not long remain 
there. Lately, in our own time, when the Gothic 
style of architecture came into fashion again, 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



T6 



these antiquities were also revived. They looked 
singular enough, in their twelfth century cos- 
tume, among these Vienna and Parisian toilets. 
What I thought most disagreeable in the broad 
sunlight was, that their coarse white linen was 
not only badly washed, but horribly marked by 
the tiles into the bargain. They told me that on 
the 16th of July in the present year, their first 
hospital in Bozen had been erected, after the 
pope's permission had been obtained in the pre- 
ceding May. They were now on their way to 
establish another in Brunn, and to receive some 
new sisters, for which purpose thoy supplicated 
the assistance of St. Vincentius, the patron-saint 
of their order. The elder one told me she had 
removed to this order from that of the Grey Sis- 
ters, of whom more were to be admitted, that 
the new order might profit by their experience 
in the care of the sick. 

In truth, no mammoth's tooth lies so deeply 
buried in the dust of ages, but our curious, pry- 
ing age will ferret it out — no mummy lies hidden 
so clusely in the depths of the pyramid, but our 
all-seeking curiosity will dig it into daylight — 
no nun is so snugly covered with the mantle of 
ancient and modern times, but she will be drag- 
ged from oblivion, have new lil'e infused into 
her veins, and be sent forth a wanderer among 
the children of the present day. If it were pos- 
sible to give life to the Egyptian mummies, we 
should see tliem among us again. 

I was just about to leave the front deck, when, 
among the crowd, I observed two black figures, 
who suggested to me, for the moment, that my 
last notion respecting the mummies was already 
in the course of fulfilment. On inquiry, I learnt 
they were workmen from the celebrat'^d plum- 
bago mines near Marbach, a little picturesque 
village we had just left behind us. These 
mines have been worked from very ancient 
times; but of late they have acquired new im- 
portance. The English have ibund that this 
plumbago is well adapted to fill their lead-pen- 
cils, and they have, of late, imported it in tole- 
rably large quantities. Last year two thousand 
hundred weight were sent to England. Since 
then the people of Vienna have bestowed a little 
more attention on the mines, and some new 
ones have been opened within the last two years. 
A company has been formed in Vienna for the 
exportation of this article, in which the Roths- 
childs had a share; and we had a young Saxon 
professor on board, who had visited the mines 
by the invitation of those gentlemen. It is re- 
markable that the Austrians do not rather make 
the pencils themselves; but the English under- 
stand these things better, and have better wood 
for the purpose. They get the material pulver- 
ized from Austria, carefully consolidate and 
enclose it in cedar-wood, andilhen suppl)^ all the 
artists in the world. Their own mines become 
daily poorer, while those of x\ustria increase, as 
the rich material, with which Nature has abun- 
dantly supplied them, becomes better known. 
"Whilst the Saxon professor was obligingly ex- 
plaining all this to us, the young German Italian 
took out her English blacklead-pencil and gave 
it me, that it might write its own history in my 
note-book. 

The arrangements on board the Austrian 
steamers are apparently as good as those of the 



Rhine. To judge of the whole of a vessel, re- 
quirae a long acquaintance, as it docs to become 
well acquainted wiih a man; but the cabins, &c. 
left nothing to be desired. There were separate 
ones appropriated to the smokers, and abundant 
accommodation for the ladies. The business of 
the engineer, who had his own office, as the 
captain had, was promptly executed, and there 
was less trouble with respect to the baggage 
than in the Rhine steamers. Any one might 
take out, or put in, as it pleased him; a ticket 
being given, answering to that on the package. 
Neither was there any fault to be found with the 
fare. It is true, that our meals were so well 
seasoned by jigreeable society, that some faults 
in the cookery might well have been forgiven. 

The literature of the Danube may now com- 
pare itself with that of the Rhine. I do not 
mean in the larger scientific works, or those 
belonging to the belks-kttres, but the local in- 
formation, which, at every place, in elegant little 
pamphlets, oti'ers the necessary information to 
the traveller. The engravings and maps are not 
inferior to the letter-press. The whole course 
of the Danube is so fully and satisfactorily given, 
that it may have suggested to many the expe- 
diency of sparing themselves the cost of the 
actual jt)urney altogether. 

The sailors were Germans, Venetians, and 
Dalmatians. Many of the commanders of the 
Danube steamers are Italians. There is a great 
deal of courtesy shown by these vessels. W hen 
they meet, a salute is always fired, while the 
busy Rhine steamers pass each other without 
notice; incieed, there are so many of these, that 
there would be no end of the cannonading, if 
they observed the same practice. I noticed, 
also, that the ordinary boatmen always took oiT 
their hats to each other. The Danube millers 
alone, whose huge mills advance far into the 
stream, close to the channel, live on somewhat 
hostile terms with the watermen. The boatmen 
are angry that the mills sometimes narrow their 
channel, and the millers maintain that " God did 
not make the Danube for the boatmen alone," 
and assert that, in storms, their mills are often 
injured. Whenever we passed one of these 
mills, which the large waves we raised would 
set in motion, we were greeted with a jest or a 
grimace. 

Of Great Pfichlarn I had only a passing glance 
through the cabin-window, as I rose to pour out 
a glass of wine for Mademoiselle B. Doubtless 
Bishop Baturich, of Ratisbon, examined it a 
little more attentively, when he received the 
place as a present from Louis the German, in 
the year 831. In spite of its high-sounding 
appellation, the place has only forty-five houses; 
nevertheless it calls itself a town, and so old a 
one, that it reckons almost as many centuries 
as it has dwellings. Under the name of Arelape, 
the place was known to the Romans, and in the 
Nibelungenlied it is called Bechelaren. These 
little paltry towns on the Danube play a more 
important part at the court of the River God, and ♦ 
vaunt of names more widely spread than the 
most important towns in Bohemia, which are ^ 
like great spirits and men of mark lost in the 
provinces. Even the villages on the Danube 
consider themselves aristocratic, and in fact are 
so. Little Pochlarn situated over against Great 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



Pochlarn, disputes with the latter its claim to 
the Roman name of Arelape, and to the ey|fthet 
praeclaru bestowed on one of them by the same 
people. 

At every health we drank at our table d'hote 
we rushed by one or other of these old Danube 
castles; fin>t,' castle Weiteneck, then castle Lu- 
bereck, and at last some one cried out, "there 
is Mollv, Molk, the finest abbey in all the holy 
Roman empire," and we all rushed up the cabiu- 
stairs to look at it. 

The beautiful abbey of Molk, or rather, to 
speak more correctly, the magnificent palace 
and cathedral of this stately old episcopal seat, 
sits proudly enthroned upon its gr9.nite founda- 
tion, the extreme promontory of an arm of the 
Alps, whose picturesque sides decline towards 
the Danube. On every side of the hill, a river 
pours its waters into a mighty stream; on the 
one the Molk, on the other the Bilach, and their 
valleys lie in meadow and arable land at the 
foot of the lordly abbey. I did not see the inte- 
rior. My iuteniion was to have lemained here 
one day, and to pursue mv journey ui the steam- 
boat the day following. But when we have pro- 
posed to ourselves to see the whole, even so 
splendid an individual object as Molk vanishes 
like a point in the bewildering enjoyment. And 
then, honestly speaking, I felt unwilling to leave 
an agreeable circle in the steanrer, which I 
might not have met with another day. In short, 
I allowed the abbey to pass by and remained 
with the gazing majority, instead of joining the 
minority, consisting of a Benedictine canon, and 
a young peasant, who got into a boat and left us 
here. 

I thought at first to earn great praise from my 
fair travelling companions, when I told them that 
I had remained on board for the pleasure of 
their company. Quite the contrary. I heard 
nothing but reproaches. "There was a little 
laziness in the case," said they; " people like to 
sit still after dinner, and it is pleasanter to remain 
quietly here than to scramble up and down 
hills and steeps." I hid my embarrassment 
behind the iViendly cloud of my cigar, but my 
reprover continued, " How, sir, you, an enthu- 
siast for historical recollections can pass the 
most remarkable point on the whole Danube 
with so much indilference, to drink coilee and 
smoke cigars! this famous Namaue of the Ro- 
mans, this mighty Melliciuni, the chief seat of 
the powerful Hungarian prince Geisr., the ori- 
ginal residence of the renowned Babenberg 
rulers, and where still the monuments of these 
illustrious lords are to be seen! the birthplace of 
Leopold, the patron saint of Austrial" "I esteem 
all these- recollections much," said I, "but I can 
indulge them at least as agreeably in your 
society as in that of the reverend canon there; 
and, after all, the living breathing world is be- 
yond any other in my estimation." 

" And what then is your mighty gain in this 

breathing world! A few silly, white-faced, gos- 

• siping women, that is all," said the Austrian. 

"And now listen to me, I will read to you from 

, my Guide what you have lost. In the first 

place, a magnificent church treasure, with the 

costliest vestments, and a chalice made of gold 

found in the sands of the Danube." 

"Ay, my dear madam, these splendours at 



least I cannot regret; I would much rather ad- 
mire the ornaments you are now wearing on 
your neck and fingers, than all the jewels abbot 
ever wore, and this full glass is more to my taste 
than the empty chalice of Danube gold." 

"Further; the pictures of all the Austrian 
rulers, painted by Grabner, and many excellent 
oil and fresco paintings by iScangoni, Lucas of 
Leyden, Schinnagel Querfurt, and a crowd of 
unknown masters, who, as every body knows, 
have many more charms than the known ones." 
"I have told you already this morning, that I 
have here a picture-gallery that interests me 
far more than all that Lucas of Leyden, or 
Schinnagel of Pi'-chlarn ever painted." 

" Then the colleciions of coins, of natural his- 
tory, the imperial chambers, and many other 
fine strangers' apartments, in one of which, no 
doubt, you might have lodged yourself. What 
do you say to that"!" 

"As for the chambers, I have only to say, that 
they are firmly attached to the rock. A sta- 
tionary imperial chamber will not so easily 
allure me from a moving one." 

"And last of all, listen now. A splendid 
library of twenty thousand volumes; and besides 
these, seventeen hundred rare manuscripts and 
incunabula^. Now, sir, do not these twenty 
thousand volumes fall like twenty thousand ball 
cartridges, and these incunabuloe like so many 
bombs on your slumbering conscience!" 

" A most energetic aUack indeed! But, un- 
fortunately, I must confess, I have wandered 
unmoved through libraries that could reckon 
hundreds of thousands. Give me but the short 
quintessence of all these books in your society, 
and I will leave the seventeen hundred incuna- 
bulae of Molk without remorse, to slumber in 
their dusty cradles." 

The reader will, at all events, have gathered 
from this conversation — and it was reported 
with that view — how well a visit to the Abbey 
of Molk would be rewarded, and he will the 
sooner make it himself, if he do not happen to 
come upon it as I did while on a rapid journey 
to Hungary. , 

Below Molk lie the ruins of Durrenstein, of 
all the castles of the Danube the most famed in 
song. Shortly before it reaches this point, the 
river makes a sudden bend, and a little further 
on, another, so that the castle presents itself 
suddenly throned on the frowning rock, and as 
it is closed in behind again by rugged mountain 
walls, it looks isolated in its rocky desert, al- 
though standing on the baiilc ol' the land-uniting 
stream. King Richard may have suffered all 
the more during his imprisonment here, for, if 
his apartment lay on the eastern side, although 
he might enjoy some distant view, it was a view 
into thi- heart of 4i^stria, which he must have 
detested, whereas, on the side towards England, 
whither his longing wishes must have tended 
most, the prospect is most limited. 

I should like to know more precisel)' what 
were the employments of the lion-hearted king 
in this stern rocky nest; how far he was at 
liberty to go, who spoke with him, and whether 
he learnt some words of Austrian Germani 
Without historical record I can easily believe 
the noble warrior to have been kind and gra- 
cious to his attendants, the servants of Hadmar 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



77 



des Khuenringer, and that in the morning when 
they brought him — not his coffee — but his por- 
ridge, perhaps he would have answered their 
greeting wiili a " Grilss di Goit Seppi." 

It is a pity, however, that we cannot be sure 
of these things, and how thoughtless it was of 
Blondel not to keep a journal; -no doubt his 
royal friend gave him an exact account of ail 
that had happened when he was once more at 
liberty. What a precious, what an inestimable 
book would be "Blondel's Memoirs of the Fif- 
teen Mt)nths' Imprisonment of King Richard 
Cocur de Lion." How seldom it has happened 
that such a royal prey, a lion, born for the most 
unbounded freedom, has fallen into such a trap. 
And how widely diffused is the story of this 
captivity, how for nearly seven hundred years it 
has been, related and re-related by all European 
and American grandfathers to all European and 
American children! And yet, in how i'ew words 
the whole tradition is contained! How much 
remains to be filled up by every narrator, ac- 
cording to his own fashion! Every onehas his 
own image of Archduke Leopold, the cunning 
wolf, of the valiant, unsuspicious Richard, the 
suffering lion, and the gentle, tuneful Blondel, 
his faithful friend! The tradition, like every 
thing really beautiful, is so fine and touching in 
all its parts, that in defiance of the scanty data, 
it will remain as long as the rocks remain that 
echo it. As yet the slory is in a measure new, 
and all the travellers thronged to the side of the 
steamboat to look at the ruins of casde Durren- 
stein, as if it related to some occurrence of re- 
cent date. The loophole, behind wh ich the king 
was said to have sat, was sought for with 
glasses, and the broken column and wall of the 
knightly hall, where the hero walked with Khu- 
enringer, and the fragments of painting in the 
ruined chapel, the cellars and the vaults. The 
castle will not last much longer; a couple of 
centuries at the most. Fragments of the wall 
will then be sought for on the mountain side, 
and the morsels will be enveloped in paper, on 
which may be inscribed, "a stone from the for- 
mer castle of Durrenstein, where King Richard 
the Lion Heart was imprisonetl," &c. And then 
the stone may vanish, and some thousands of 
years afterwards, perhaps, the vacant place may 
be pointed out, and strange tongues may speak 
of an unaulhenticated story of some imprisoned 
king, ill whom fewer and fewer persons are in- 
terested, until at last the lion-hearted king will 
be confounded with a real lion, and the story 
may run thus: — "In times of remote antiquity, 
when the people called Germans still inhabited 
this country, the last lion was caught in the 
wilderness, but afterwards escaped," «fec. By 
the time Africa is cleared of its lions such a ver- 
sion of the story is by no means improbable. 

As we passed Durrenstein, one of the tienuans 
began to hum the air: 



' Richard, O inon rf>>, 
L'uiiivers I'abaiidonne " 



I remarlccd that the words were strikin2;ly cor- 
rect, for the casile looks so solitary, that Richard 
must have really felt as if forsaken by all the 
world. " Yes," said the singer, " his spirit must 
have suffered the tortures of an impaled crimi- 



nal, and that for fifteen months long! It is fear- 
ful, and almost moves me to tears." In fact the 
locality so seizes upon the imagination, that 
even t, though by no means sentimental, (the 
reader will permit this confession,) felt a certain 
creeping sensation coming over me. Strange! 
Had we not all heard this story a hundred times 
before, i-ead of it, and related it again without 
any particular emotion; is not the whole an 
idea, an imagination! What was it then that 
so powerfully affected us in passing the place 
itself] 

I used formerly when I heard the story of 
Richard's imprisonment, to feel mortified that 
it should be a German prince who played the ig- 
noble part, and now it sounded strangely enough 
to hear a German singing in the French lan- 
guage the praises of an English king; but I 
might almost say, I was shocked to hear an 
Englishman, of whom I inquired the next verse 
of the song, answer drily, as he settled his cra- 
vat, " Je n'al pas Pint unite dc to'iie cette chose." 

Behind Durrenstein as we round the corner 
towards Mautern, is the last fine picture in this 
unequalled gallery, through which we had been 
running; a gallery so inexhaustible in ipeauties, 
that the hundred e\'es of Argus would be wanted 
to discover them all. Mautern, and the opposite 
village of Stein, form a landscape in the style 
of Claude Lorraine, and seem placed here pur- 
posely to soothe the troubled spirit after the wild 
and savage Durrenstein. To the right and lefk 
lie the pretty little towns of Stein, Mautern, and 
Krems, all places sung in the Nibelungenlied, 
and here collected in the propyiaeum of the Da- 
nube temple. The river is crossed here by a 
bridge of boats, the first between this place and 
Linz; both the bridge and the town are interest- 
ing objects from their geographical position on 
the boundary, between the mountain territory 
of the Danube and its plains. In the foreground, 
from the window of a house advancing close 
upon the river, two monks were looking out 
upon the umiuict steamboat; a terrace, belong- 
ing to the house projecting over the stream, was 
filled with flowers. In the background of the 
picture, on a rock seven hundred feet in height, 
rises a ^lately edifice, the abbey of Gotiweih, 
the third in rank of the ecclesiastical founda- 
tions on the Danube. It covers the whole tole- 
rably broad back of the mountain, which stands 
in an extensive and beautiful plain. The hills 
rising at the sides of the little towns, are crowned 
with vineyards; and vessels are moving back 
wards and tbrwards on the winding river in 
front. What follows, is comparatively insigni- 
ficant and uninteresting, partly from negligence, 
as I cannot but think, that with proper treat- 
ment and some pains, all these immeasurable 
water-meadows, morasses, and wastes, might 
be changed into pleasing pictures, were they 
only in the style of the rich marsh lands of Hol- 
land, dammed up by dikes, and spotted with a 
few comfortable houses, and some well-fed cat- 
tle. But, instead of that, these water-meaclows 
lie bare and desolate among the many arms of 
the Danube, presenting a most unpleasing con- 
trast to those before mentioned between the hills. 

The beautiful abbey of Gnttweih, which dre\r 
many a sigh from the prisoners in the steam- 
boat, alone remained long visible, a last conso- 



78 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



lation for all we had lost. Beyond the willow 
grown meadows and islands of Ilolletiburg, we 
still caught si-^'ht of its distant biiildin^^s, till at 
last ihcy vanished like a cloud in the gray hori- 
zon. Then, wearied out with the enjoyment of 
the day, we could recline on the elegant divans 
of the Archduke Stephen, and listen to him who 
related the pleasing stor)' of the foundation of 
Gottweih. It is thus related by Bishop Allmann, 
of Passaa, who lived in the eleventh century: 
" In my youih, when I was still a travelli;ig 
student, and when the deceased majesty the em- 
peror Uonrad ruled, I came into the most remote 
part of my new diocess, the country that we 
Germans took from the Huns and Avares, under 
our emperor Charlemagne, of blessed memorj'. 
I was in company with my dear brother and 
friend, Adalbert, bishop of VVurzburg, and Geb- 
hardt, bishop of Saltzburg. They were then like 
myself, travelling scholars. We three passed 
many a cheerful and pious holiday together; but 
at times we shared notliing but labour, and want, 
and trouble; yet we went on our v/ay diligently, 
prayed and sang, studied, and were followers of 
God's word. In that land, then, we came once 
on a high hill in the midst of fruitful plains, but 
one little laboured in, either in a spiritual or any 
other sense, on the banks of the broad Danube; 
and we poor scholars sat ourselves down and 
looked upon the country round about. As we 
three poor and insignificant people sat there on 
the summit of the hill, in the midst of free na- 
ture, there came upon us all three a vehement 
wish to be stronger and more profitable servants 
of God. We prayed to him that he would give 
us higher place in his service, and made a com- 
pact, each clasping the other's hand, that in all 
the roads and byways of life, that we trod m the 
name of God, we would faithfully stand by and 
help one another, and that we would neither halt 
nor rest, till each had the bishop's crozierin his 
hand, and a flock to pasture in the name of the 



liord. Well! we have kept our bond truly, and 
our three bishoprics border on one another. And 
I, for mine own behoof, made a vow on that 
mountain, that if I became the bishop of Pas- 
sau, I would build a monastery on that same 
mountain, that the cultivation of the land and 
of the souls ©f the dwellers might be adv'^nced 
thereby. I am iiow bishop of Passau, and the 
convent by the Danube has been long roofed in, 
and named by me, Gottweih, because I have de-f 
dicated it to the Lord and ('reator of the world. 
And there my cofiin is already nailed together, 
and my vault built, for I would fain be buried in 
the place of my fairest j'-outhful recollections." 
Here may be added, that this wish also was ful- 
filled, and the traveller may yet stand and con- 
template the grave of the poor scholar, Alt- 
mann. 

The word meadow (Au) has in German a par- 
ticularly friendly sound. The poet often malces 
use of it, and seldom without a loving predi- 
cate—the "charming," the "loved," or "lovely" 
meadows. But we have only to go from Stein 
to Vienna to be heartily sick of the name and 
the thing. I saw on this passage so many un- 
lovely meadows, that I have the word regularly 
en dep'it, and was not a little rejoiced when we 
came in sight of Leopold's mountain, and Kah- 
lenberg, and when we passed Klosterneuberg, 
and heard at Nussdorfl', "Halt — stop the ma- 
chine." Nussdorfl' is the harbour of Vienna: 
it lies at the mouth of that arm of the Danube 
that branches off here, and flows through the 
imperial city. Here the greater number of the 
vessels navigating that river, land their passen- 
gers, and here, in consequence, is a never-end- 
ing turmoil and contusion of boats, men, and 
conveyances, to encounter which, one has to 
arm oneself beforehand widi patience and watch- 
fulness, in Uider not to be ingulfed in a vortex 
alike dangerous to purse, person, and baggage. 



LOWER AUSTllIA. 



VIENNA, OR BETSCH. 

And in this manner we reached the prcat city 
of Betsch, a name liig;liiy valued throughout the 
east, thuufih wonderfully little known in Europe. 

The city of Bet-sch has four hundred tliousand 
inhabitants, and is the residence of a powerful 
Shah, who rules a land more extensive than 
Beloochistaii and Afighanistan, called Nyem- 
zestan. 'J'his land of Nyemzestan contains a 
number of kingdoms ancl principalities, over all 
of which the above-named Shah is master and 
lord. The greatest of these subordinate king- 
doms is Trandebog, lying towards the north. 
Its inhabitants, the Trandebugiang, amount, in 
number, to millions. 

The language spoken in Betsch is a very sin- 
gular mixture. It neither resembles the Turk- 
ish nor the Persian, but is said to have some 
affinity to German. 

The Turks, the Hungarians, and all the na- 
tions beyond, far into Asia, call that Betsch 
•which we christen Vienna, and signify by Ny- 
emzestan, the whole of our German fatherland, 
of which they suppose his majesty of Austria to 
be sovereign lord. It is true, that the emperor 
Francis renounced this titje, and tiie glory of 
the German empire has long since passed away; 
but it is long before the setting of a star is ob- 
served in distant regions, as its rays, once trans- 
mitted, still conjure up its image before its. 
Brandenburg is corrupted by the Turks into 
Trandebog. Betsch or Vienna is, to them, next 
"to Trieste, the most distinguished place of traffic 
in Germany. 

Two great water-roads connect Germany with 
the east: the Adriatic Sea and the Danube. At 
the head of the one lies Trieste, and of the other 
Vienna; and from these two pla:'es branches 
out the whole commerce of the east to the inte- 
rior of Germany, as it develops itself from Con- 
stantinople to Trebisond and Smyrna. Vienna 
is the last westerly point before which a hostile 
Turkish army encamped, and the most western 
seat of an eastern commercial colony or fac- 
tory. 

The people who are the great agents of this 
commerce, through theif own trade and their 
river navigaiioii, are the Servians — the IJas- 
cians, as lliey are called in Vienna and Hun- 
gary. I could never discover,either from bociks 
or verbal inquir3% whence this appellation for 
the Servians was derived.* In Hungarian La- 
tin, they are called Rasci, their country Rascia, 
and the King of Hungary is entitled " Rex Ras- 
cia?." 

The Rascians have their colonies in Pesih, 
Vienna, and other cities on the Danube, where 



* There ia a small river in Servia bearing a similar 
name, from which a may be derived. 



they are mingled with the other inhabitants, as 
the Armenians, Buchanans and Greeks, are in 
southern and western Ru^sia, and as the Jews 
are in other countries; and are the principal 
masters of vessels on the middle and lower 
Danube. They are to be met with their wives 
in all the public places in Vienna, habited in a 
strange mixture of European and Oriental cos- 
tume. After the Rascians, the Turco-Spanish 
Jews plav the principal part in the commercial 
world of Vienna. 'J'his remarkable branch of a 
remarkable nation, was scattered over the whole 
Turkish empire alter the most Catholic kings 
of Spain had driven them from their dominions. 
They have commercial establishments in all the 
Turkish states of Africa and in Asia; and, as 
agents between the east and west, they have 
also fixed themselves at Vienna, -where their 
houses are very considerable. Like the Ser- 
vians, though in fewer numbers, they have ex- 
tendi'd tlicir branches as far as Pes'th, Semlin, 
Bclgi';id>», and are more especially important in 
the relations of the Danube countries with Thes- 
salonica. 

These Spanish orTnr]<i.-h .U'ws have adopted 
the eastern Ci.stuine, ]iroi>ably l>ieau,>e it was a 
sine qua nun of iheir admission into the Turkish 
dominions, but they retain the Spanish language. 
They converse and correspond with each other 
from Belgrade to Salonica, and frorfi Neusatz 
to Vienna in Spanish; probably it is found con- 
venient here as a language very little known. 
They enjoy many privileges in Vienna, among 
others that of being reckoned Turkish subjects, 
although established in Austria, and are conse- 
quently, imder the protection of the Turkish 
ambassador, as independent of the native au- 
thoruii'.s as the Franks are under that of their 
consuls in tlie Turkish dominions. 

Besides the above-named foreigners, there are 
many Greek and Armenian merchants settled 
in Vienna. The principiil banker, Sina, is a 
Greek. Since the late improvements in the 
navigation of the Danube, which have made it 
possible to travel from Vienna to Trebisond 
within fourteen days, and to reach the interior 
of Persia*in three weeks, traders 'from Asia 
Minor, and the Persian pointed caps, have made 
tl)<?ir appearance in the neighbourhood of St. 
Stephen's church, but they are only visitors in 
the city and not residents. 

The whole number of Orientals in Vienna, is 
generally recl{'oned at about a thousand souls. 
In what degree their numbers have increased, 
with the still increasing intercourse with the 
east, I learnt in the otfice of the Vienna Foreign 
Police, where I had an opportunity of looking at 
the register of foreign residents. From 1S22 to 
1831 (in nine years), a large folio volume had 
been filled with the names and residences of 
Turkish subjects; from 1831 to 1836 (that is ia 



80 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



five years), another as large, and in the follow- 
ing four years, a third was filled. « 

The register for the year 1840, gives the num- 
bers of Turkish subjects trading en gros, whose 
firms are established in Vienna. 

1st. 01" the Greek religion (thefevvest of these 
being of the Gieek nation) (il'tv-two. 

2dly. Israelite Turkish merchants (the greater 
number bearing Spanish family-names, as So- 
majo, Majo, Abeneri, Benturo, Major, Sabetay, 
&c.), forty-eight. 

And 3dly. Armenian merchants, nine. 

The greater part of these oriental inhabitant^ 
live in the neighl)Ourhood of the old meat mar- 
ket. There they are to be met with, as grave 
as storks, slowly pacing through the bustle of a 
European street, or reclining ou the handsome 
red cushions with which tlie windows of a Vi- 
enna house are generally provided, they may be 
seen looking down upon the turmoil, and tran- 
quilly smoking. Here also are the two cnlfee- 
housrs most frequented by them, the "Grecian," 
and the "City of London." In the first, there is 
a constant in tin X and efflux of eastern merchants, 
mingled with Greeks, Jews, and Italians. The 
second, has been especially selected as the scene 
of their social amusements, — smoking and sit- 
ting still, — by the young Turkish students and 
the officers of the Porte, who of late have been 
accustomed to make the pilgrimage froni the 
Bosphorus to the seat of art and enlightenment 
on the banks of the Danube. They learn Ger- 
man of course, and their pronunciation, seemed 
to me in general soft, harmonious, and agree- 
able. It sounded, however, comical enough to 
liear these foreigners take all imaginable pains 
to acquire the Austrian provincialisms, which 
they most conscientiously sought to imitate. 

Surprise has been expressed (and with rea- 
son i, that those of the Vienna coffee-house 
keepers who call their establishments oriental, 
tike so little trouble to furnish them in the 
eastern taste. They have not so much as the 
broad divan always found in Turkish coffee- 
houses. Now, when we bethink ourselves, how 
much even we unquiet Franks value a com- 
fortable seat, of which many of our proverbial 
expressions offer a proof, as "sitting in clover," 
"sitting upon thorns," &c.; when we reflect that 
even with our inconvenient sjtting machines, it 
is so easy to accustom oneself to one kind, that 
another becomes disagreeable, (I know aGerman 
lady, who told me, that being used to sitting on 
cane chairs, she could not endure cushioned 
ones, whereby I sui)pressed, just at the right 
time, a philosophical remark that came into my 
head, viz., that certain very distant parts of our 
physical organization must be capabTe of con- 
tracting habits, which, when opposed, excited 
disagreeable sensations,) when we consider 
these things, I say, we cannot feel otherwise 
than great compassion for the poor orientals in 
Vienna, mounted on our narrow, long-legged, 
unstead}', sitting accommodations, their hearts 
a prey to hoine-sickness, and their legs, the one 
tucked under them after the fashion of th^ir 
fatherland, while its forsaken' brother dangles 
solitary and stick-like in cold empty space! 



VISIT TO ST. STEPHEN'S TOWNEE. 

My best friend in Vienna was named Stephen, 
and when I heard he had become a widower 
lately, I went to pay him my visit of condolence. 
At first I did not very well understand the ex- 
pression "become a widower," as, to the best of 
my knowledge, my friend Stephen, who was 
above four hundred feet high, and five hundred 
years old (being no other than the renowned 
steeple dedicated to the abovenamed saint) had 
never been married, although he had many 
brothers, as the double steeple in Rheiins, the 
sister steeples in Munich, Lubeck, and other 
places. I asked, therefore, with some reason, 
"how he could have become a widower," and 
was answered," Because it has pleased the fates, 
and the safety police to relieve him of hisc/oss." 
So this was a piece of Vienna wit, which will 
not be taken amiss by any married lady in the 
world, I think, for tlie compliment implied is far 
greater tlian the discourtesy at first apparent. 
If it be maintained that every married man 
bears his wife enthroned in honour far above 
himself, as Stephen's Tower bore his cross, it 
must be admitted that the matrimonial burden 
cannot but be a light one to so great and portly 
a gentleman. This cross was also united with 
a double eagle, spreading its lordly pinions over 
the Tower, even as married ladies sometimes 
extend another pretty little instrument authori- 
tatively over the heads of their wedded lords, or 
wedded servants as they should rather be called. 
Stephen, as he is sometimes laconically styled 
in Vieima, is in general fanned by the pinions 
of more peaceful birds, or by the harmless, 
though, from its great height, sometimes out- 
rageous god of wind; but nearly every himdred 
years this tower h^ had visitors of another 
description, lowering, black, hard-headed fel- 
lows, who cared little how they ruffled his care- 
fully arranged toilet. Between thei different 
bombardments, M'hich Vienna and St. Stephen's 
Tower, in particular, have suflered from the 
Hungarians, Turks, — a second time from the 
Turks, and lastly from the French; exactly a 
hundred years have each time elapsed. Since 
the last shooting-match, forty years have nearly 
fiovvn away; from what direction the bombs of 
1907 or 1909 are to whistle, it is not difficult to 
guess; for every traveller who visits Austria 
must ask himself why all the windows and 
loopholes, looking to the northeast, are not a 
little better fastened up. Perhaps Stephen may 
weather the bombardment of 1907, and, perhaps, 
a sixth or a seventh, but at last his courage 
may sink under these repeated attacks, till one 
day the old, crazy, useless Stephen, out of re- 
gard to the heads of the worthy citizetis, will 
be ordered to be removed altogether. God be 
thanked, the Ir.uids by v.hich, and the heads for 
whose sake this will have to be done, lie still in 
the d;irkness of the future. At present the good 
people of Vienna are busied in removing the 
old worn-out bones, and substituting new ones. 
I examined the work closely. The permission 
IS obtained in the othce of the church-master, 
where a printed passport for this little journey 
to the clouds is issued. 
The church-master's office has its seat in the 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



81 



neighbourhood, and is in itself a little curiosity, ] 
for it is a question whether any other cathedral j 
can boast so numerous a court. The venerable t 
Stephen brings his middle age chstoms and i 
usag»s int(imudern times, and has his own pe- 
culiar sourcl!s ot revenue, which are as difbcult 
to administer, as the Gothic caprices oi' building 
are to liring within architectural rules. The 
so-called giant door, one of its five entrances, 
abounding in all kinds of inexplicable decora- 
tions, is never opened on ordinary occasions, 
and seems to be quite rusty for want of use. It 
costs a considciable sum when, at the desire of 
some relative of an illustrious deceased, this 
door opens to admit the corse. The numerous 
death-bells have their difierent prices, and if it 
be desired that "Stephen" shall set his whole 
concert of bells in motion in honour of the de- 
parted, no inconsiderable capital must be ex- 
pended. There are not less than twenty-one 
peisons employed in the church-master's office; 
a cliurch provost, a controller, four secretaries, 
a sexton, two upper vergers, two lower vergers, 
four assistant vergers, four guides, two reck- 
oners. It must be observed that these form 
only one branch of the cathedral authorities, its 
police as it were. The cathedral dignitaries 
are many more, and then there are the female 
attendants or housemaids, to say nothing of the 
watchmen on the tower, &c. 

Not far from the door, through which you 
ascend the tower, among the many monuments 
on the walls, there is one old stone with this in- 
scription, "fortiter ac suavitt'r." I translated 
these words for the benefit of a pretty little Ser- 
vian, who, with a train of brothers and kindred, 
was preparing to ascend along with me, and we 
took these words as a viaticum on our way. 
The young Oriental had the same detestable 
head-dress as the rest of her countrywomen in 
Vienna, — a cloth, bound flat and tightly round 
her head, with a bouquet of flaring flowers, like 
the feather in a soldier's shako. She was very 
pretty, however, in spite of her head-gear. 

St. Stephen's Tower is inhabited from top to 
bottom by very difierent kinds of men and ani- 
mals. A.t the bottom, strangers are under the 
guidance of two young ecclesiastics. Further 
up, as far as the roof, the church servants bear 
sway; we then enter the territory of the bell- 
ringers, and at the very top of the tower watch- 
men keep watch and ward. All, according to 
their own fashion, do the honours of the place, 
and levy a contribution on travellep. On all 
sides one is called upon to look and admire; here 
is the hole through which, some years ago, a 
man, weary of life, flung his hat down info the 
church, and then flung himself after it — there are 
the bells, cast by order of the emperor Joseph I., 
from the captured Turkish cannon — here is the 
great crescent, which the Vienna people fastened 
to their tower to induce the Turks to spare the 
splendid edifice — there are the twelve engines 
and thirty cisterns for the protection of the 
building against fire. In March they are filled 
with water strongly impregnated with salt, which 
is thus preserved throughout the summer. Ad- 
miration is also challenged for the great ugly 
double eagle lying with outspread pinions on the 
roof, probably the largest figure of a bird in the 
world. If it could rise into the air it might pass 



for the ofllspring of the far-famed roc; from the 
extremity of one wing to that of the other the 
measurement is one hundred and eighty feet. 
Each eye is formed of four gilded tiles, and each 
beak ct>ntains not less than thirty such scales. 

People who are fond of taking exceptions 
against modern times, may find abundance of 
opportunity on the roof of this cathedral. In 
1830 it was (bund necessary to repair a portion; 
the new tiles were shaped and coloured after 
the model of the old; but after the lapse of only 
ten years they are worn out. The glazing and 
colour is worn off the gieater part, the white 
glaze turning quite red, and displaying the 
native hue of the clay, while the old tiles, the 
work of the middle ages, retain all their original 
tints and freshness. It is feared that the roof 
itself may sutler from the badness of the tiling, 
and a renewal of the work is already talked of. 

No less than 700 steps must be mounted to 
reach the tower where the watchers have their 
dwelling and place of abode. The arrange- 
ments made for ascertaining the exact locality 
of a fire are very peculiar and interesting. Oa 
the parapets of the four windows, looking east, 
west, north, and south, are four telescopes. Each 
glass, or, as they call the whole apparatus here, 
every " toposkop" commands a fourth of the 
whole circular sea of houses, stretc-bing oa 
every side of the church. E; eh quadrant is 
divided by circles and radii into sections, and 
by the aici of the glass the section in which the 
burning house lies is easily ascertained. The 
individual hnnse is discovered with the same 
ease. By every "toposkop" there lies a thick 
book containing the names of all the house 
owners in each section; and thus the house can 
be not only ascertained, but named. When the 
name is found it is written on a slip of paper, 
which is enclosed in a brass balk This ball is 
thrown down a pipe, and it passes rapidly, like 
a winged messenger of evil tidings, down to the 
dwelling of the sexton, where it is picked up by 
a watchman constantly in attendance there and 
carried to the city authorities. Here it is opened, 
and the name of the unfortunate house made 
known to those whom it may concern. In the 
description, this operation appears somewhat 
long, but it is performed with tolerable rapidity 
and certainty, and the "toposkop" can be used 
as well by night as by day. In the more remote 
parts of the suburb, the point is of course more 
difhcult to ascertain, as the angles of vision and 
position become smaller in the " toposkop." 
Such an apparatus can only be used with ad- 
vantage ^-om towers as lofty as St. Stephen's. 

The length of the piece latterly removed from 
the tower, from apprehension of insecurity, is 
about eleven fathoms; that is, as the whole tower 
contains about seventy-tM'o fathoms, nearly a 
sixth of the whole. This piece had long swayed 
from the right line, in consequence of an earth- 
quake, it was said, but at first with an inclination 
of only three feet from the highest point of the 
cross. At last, however, it was asserted that 
the highest point was a whide fathom out of the 
perpendicular. Many smaller parts had also 
been much injured, partly by time and natural 
causes, partly by the dilTerent bombardments. 
For example, the crowns of many little side 
towers had been split from top to bottom, and 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



heavy fragments of stone hung threateningly 
over the abyss below swanuuig with life. The 
former repairs had been exceedingly defective; 
round many of these smaller lowers only thick 
iron bands had been passed, which scarcely 
held the loose stones together. Others had 
merely iron staves and cramp irons to keep the 
runaway fragments in their jilaces. In 1809, 
after the French bombardment, a great deal of 
money had been lavished on these cramps and 
hoUirasts; but in 1838 the real repair now in 
.i.i-nss was begun. From the main or round 
r )rrii!iir, the touer is snrrounded by eighteen 
gallei'ie.s formed of strong beams connected by 
ladders, rising above eacii other to the top of the 
cross. The work was begun on the twenty- 
fourth of 8epteniber, 1838; it was hoped that in 
three years it would have been finished, but it 
■will certainly require three more to restore the 
noble building to its former magnificence and 
perfection. What a day of joy will that be for 
the people of Vienna! 

The very solid manner in which the scaffold- 
ings are erected, must have offered no small 
dilliculty; from below, all this joinery cannot be 
looked at without a slight sensation of fear, lest 
some tremulous liurricane might in its sport 
scatter these beams like matches, and hurl them 
down upon the roofs and heads below. When- 
ever the wind is very high, tlie work must be 
discontinued, and the workmen retire. Hitherto 
all accidents have been avoided, but one of llie 
men told me that the mischievous ^olus had 
once played him a trick, more dangerous than 
agreeable, in whirling him aloft and seating him 
astride upon a balustrade; fortunately, before the 
second gust came, he had clUng fiist to a beam, 
and, creeping down on the inner side, saved his 
life. 

The difficulties experienced in the execution 
of the building may be estimated from this one 
circumstance, that half a day is required to 
raise the stones the same distance which the 
fire-announcing bullet traverses in a moment. 
The stones are all tolerably large, and eleven 
workmen are scarcely able to raise two in a 
day. 

In order that the new stones used in the re- 
pairs may not be too conspicuous by the side of 
the old, they have invented a new colour, where- 
with to stain them, but the right shade has not 
been caught, and the places repaired are easily 
recognizable from below. We pointed this out 
to the people about, but they assured us, that 
after many attempts no better colour could be 
found. It struck us at first as very extraordi- 
nary that it should be so very difficult to hit the 
colour of a mass of old gray stones, and began 
to examine them more minutely. We found 
euch a variety of shades on every side and every 
stone, that it was clearly impossible that one 
and the same colour should suffice to blend old 
and new harmoniously together. The tints, 
moreover, depend partly on the vegetation, — the 
mosses which cover nearly tlie whole surface 
of the tower. In some places these mosses are 
withered and decayed; the stones are then co- 
vered with a dark gray coating that can be rub- 
bed to dust between the fingers. Here and there 
occur patches of young moss, producing a gray- 
ish green tint; then come whitish grays, bluish 



and yellowish colourings. To give the right 
effect it would be necessary to lay on all these 
tints and blend them softly together; and even 
this would scarce!)' suifice, as the appearance 
of the whole changes with the we^er. In rain 
and damp weather not only the bare stones 
change their colour, but also those covered with 
moss. The mosses attract the moisture, and 
many that look withered in dry weather seem 
to gain new life after rain. In a wet season the 
verdure of the tower on one side becomes ex- 
tremely vivid, and it is impossible to follow all 
these changes with any artificial colour. It is 
a question whether it would not have been bet- 
ter to leave the new stones of their natural 
colour, trusting to time to assimilate them. Be 
this as it may, it is certain that the chosen colour 
is much too palpably blue, and ought to have 
been blended to a yellowish gray. 

The flora of St. Stephen's tower is much more 
uniform than that of the cathedral of Cologne, 
where a hundred different plants grow in rich 
luxuriance. All the north side is covered with 
mosses. The south has little or no vegetation. 
The fauna of the cathedral is various enough. 
Of the human part we spoke before. The crows, 
jackdaws, hawks, &c., it has in common with 
all the church steeples in Germany; owls are 
very rare, the guardians of the place said there 
were none, which would be remarkable enough, 
but the bats are so numerous, that I was told on 
a late search for their hiding places not less 
than fifty had been discovered and killed, be- 
cause the night patrols could no longer protect 
their lanterns or their faces from the assaults of 
these goblins. A worse plague than these are 
the g-ohe, {he little long-legged stinging insects 
of which all travellers and boatmen along the 
Danube complain so much. I should like to 
know what the swamp-bred animalcute can 
think of seeing in these giant towers, where in 
summer time they swarm in such numbers that 
the people employed there are obliged to sleep 
with damp cloths upon their faces. Chamber 
flies are found also, but in no great numbers. 
Mice there are none. Spiders were found in 
prodigious numbers; they and the gohes have 
been carrying on the war here these four hun- 
dred years, and duibtless much to interest the 
naturalist has occurred, meanwhile, in the world 
of spiders. In fact, a natui-alist might take up 
his abode here for a time, with great advaiUnge 
to science. Of the storms, the people say that 
nearly all come from the north. So soon as the 
weathercocks in summer turn suddenly to the 
south, a storm may be expected. One of the 
younger of the watchmen, who had been lately 
placed in this exalted position, told us, thai the 
weather up here was sometimes awful. At his 
first Avatch the fearful band of wind instruments, 
whistling and howling in the numberless clefts, 
holes, and corners, the rocldng and cracking of 
the tou-er pinnacles, the wildly driving ghost- 
like clouds, will\ the gleaming of the lightning, 
and the stunning kettle-drums of the thunder, 
filled him with such terror, that he thought he 
must have jumped out of the first convenient 
opening to the depths below There must be 
here abundant field for observation on acoustics. 
In ascending, wc remarked tliat the wind whis- 
tled through every opening in a different tone. 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



From the wooden galleries erected for the 
repairs, the panorama of the city of Vienna can 
now be enjoj'cd more conv^eriiently than ever. 
I wished to look on this spectacle fn m the sum- 
mit of one of the side towers. This summit is 
formed like the leaves of a rose flattened at the 
top and affording just space enough for two 
human feet. We ascended accordingly, and 
perched like squirrels on the topmost branch of 
a tree. The beautiful city of Vienna lay at our 
feet. It was a most beautiful, calm, clear day. 
We heard and saw all that was passing in the 
city; even the songs of the canary biids in the 
windows of some houses ascended to us, and 
we could see the buttcrtiies lluttering over the 
house-tops in search of some green spot in this 
(for them) dreary waste. We could have laid 
a gentleman we saw walking below, where the 
brother was of whom he was in search; for^vve 
saw him at the same time driving at his leisure 
on the glacis. This glacis, which surrounds 
the inmost core of the city, with its broad green 
ring, lends the panorama its principal orna- 
ment; it causes the whole picture to fall into 
picturesque parts, and permits the fine rows of 
nouses in the suburbs to be seen to full advan- 
tage. They lie round the outer edge of the 
glacis like white flowers in a wreath of green 
leaves. The tower keeper named to us all the 
market-places, streets, houses, and palaces we 
saw beneath, showed us the Danube, the first 
range of the Carpathian mountains, the Styrian 
Alps, and the roads that led to Germany, Mora- 
via, Bohemia, and Italy, and " that is," added 
he, "the high road to Hungary." Here vv'as 
matter for a prophetic homily, but I did not 
preach it, for it would have been a voice calling 
in the desert. The little Servian desired to see 
the road to Hungary, which also led to her na- 
tive land. I offered my hand, and she placed 
her little foot boldly on the edge of the stone 
flower-crown, and gazed on the fields of Hun- 
garj'; and so we stood awhile, motionless, like 
two statues on a pedestal, neither felt in the 
least giddy, but I must not forget to say, that the 
place was firmly boarded up around us, so that 
the pleasure we enjoyed was unaccompanied 
by danger. When we, that is, my Servian and 
I, had satisfied ourselves with the spectacle, we 
turned with equal convenience to another, the 
maiuTuvres of the Austrian troops, which we 
contemplated quite at our ease from the altitude 
of the seven hundred steps above mentioned. 



THE MENAGERIE AT SCHOENBRUNN. 

That man should sometimes demean himself 
sensibly can be no especial wonder, since every- 
body knows that man is neither more nor less 
than a reasonable creature. But that the poor 
dim-visioned brute should do so, is a standing 
marvel and mystery of nature, Man has in his 
soul a clear light to lighten his path externally 
and internally; the Psyche of the brute is a 
small, feeblj'-glimniering lamp, shining dimly 
through manil'old veils from a depth of darkness 
sending forth' only occasional gleams. The 
Egyptians worshipped brutes as the marvels of 
nature; with us Europeans, they have fallen i 
somewhat into contempt; yet amongst brutes j 



and plants, which appear to owe so little to 
themselves, and to have received all directly 
from God, we seem often to be nearer to the 
'divinity than amongst men. 

For "my own part, I can never look into the 
eyes of a sheep without feeling strange sensa- 
tions in beholding this veiled mystery of the 
great soul of the universe. The reader will, 
therefore, not be surprised that I and my com- 
panion. Baron K , in a short time alter my 

arrival in Vienna, were to be found less fre- 
quently among the dandies, officers, ladies of 
fashion, market folks, fish-women, or by what- 
ever other name the human chrysules may be 
called, than at Schonbrunn among the bears, 
apes, tigers, eagles, lions, and other disguises of 
the brute Psyche, having their abode in that 
garden. 

We drove there one day in one of the many 
hundred public carriages, ready at all times of 
the day to go to all ends of the world with any- 
body and any baggage. One of our travelling 
companions wJis a smartly-dressed old citizen 
of Vienna, who, when he heard we were going 
to Schonbrunn, related to us apropos, that he 
had once refused a request of the emperor Na- 
poleon when at the very summit of his power. 
He (the citizen) had a most incomparable horse, 
of Hungarian race, and Napoleon had seen it 
when the owner, as captain of the burgher 
guard, had defiled before him at the head of his 
company. The emperor had ofiered him 5000 
florins for the animal on the spot, but neither 
the gold nor the entreaties of the lord of Europe 
couid induce him to part with his admirable 
steed, and, as before said, he had refused his 
horse to this mighty potentate at a time when 
the Emperor of Austria had not dared to refuse 
the hand of his daughter. 

The menagerie of Schonbrunn incloses a part 
of the imperial garden, near which there passes 
a miserable, scantily-filled ditch, that in summer 
smells abominably, and which it is amazing to 
me does not appear the frightful object it is, to 
the thousands of Vienna people who daily re- 
sort thither. The menagerie occupies a large 
circular piece of ground, in the centre of which, 
on a little elevation, stands a man3'-windowed 
summer-house, the abode of the gaily-plumaged 
pai'Fot kind. If I were a courtier I should use 
all my influence to get these birds removed 
from so conspicuous a place, lest it should occur 
to some to draw odious comparisons between 
them aiid the court circle. 

From this parrot centre the whole circle is 
cut by radii into numerous sections. All these 
sections are divided by walls and hedges, and 
broad walks. Each section contains the stalls, 
baths, ponds, pasturages, and pleasure-grounds 
of a particular species, and since the present 
emperor has filled up the places that had be- 
come vacant, there is a tolerable number of 
interesting furred and feathered creatures, to 
whom Asia, Africa, or America has furnished 
paws or claws, hoof's, horns or antlers, the ap- 
petite for bread or for blood. 

The bears, tigers, and other carnivorous ani- 
mals, are daily in view of the public; the prisons 
of the others must be especially opened to the 
curious. The brown bears sat, like poor beg- 
gars, in their dens, and received thankfully a 



84 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



morsel of bread. If it was thrown on the top, 
they climbed up the iron grating and thrust then- 
paws through to reach it. One of them, wh^n 
we took out siirae more bread, sal up on his 
hind quarters and moved his fore paws up and 
down like a petitioner till he got a piece. A 
tiger or a lion would never learn to do this. 
The nature of the bear seems to partake of ihe 
monkey as well as of the dog. The old bears 
in Schr.nbrunn are the grandchildren of bears 
likewise born in captivity, and have, in their 
turn, descendants, the fourth generation, there- 
fore, of a tamed race. It would be interesting 
to learn, if in later generations the character of 
the animal will undergo any considerable altera- 
tion. But, unfortunately, the people here keep 
no exact account of their charges, which might 
be useful to the student of natur.il history. 

It was a hot day, and the polar bears, the 
bloodthirsty animals, who wear on tlieir body 
the colour of innocence, and cover their necks 
with the silver loclcs of venerable age, when all 
the while they have not an honest hair on the 
whole body, were splashing about in the water 
all the time we stayed. They are the only ani- 
mals who do not require their dwelling to be 
■warmed in the winter. Like their far more 
amiable brethren, the brown bears, they are fed 
only on bread and milk, which, it is said, enables 
them to bear their imprisonment better. 

The beautiful royal tiger we fuund lying on 
one side with all his legs stretched out, but so 
that his hind legs rested between die two fore 
ones. The keeper said this was his ordinary 
position when at rest. We durst not disturb 
him, as he takes it very much amiss even if 
people only touch his den, growls fearfully, and 
is long before he can be appeased. His lady is 
of a much gentler character. The cages.-of the 
tiger, lions, and other wild cats, are divisible 
into two parts by means of sliding partitions, 
that the animals may be driven into one while 
the other is cleaned. A third division projects 
like a balcony, in which they can enjoy the sun- 
shine and open air, and show themselves to the 
pubhc. The bears have their baths in addi- 
tion. 

The story we heard in the next section con- 
cerning master Jack was distressing to a friend 
of humanity. Master Jack was an exceedingly 
well-disposed and well-bred youth, living quietly 
and respectably in his appointed dwelling. He 
was on the best footing with all his acquaint- 
ance, and particularly attached to his friend and 
servant, M. Henri, who had long been iiis com- 
panion and tutor in all the arts of life, wherein 
master Jack showed great address, succeeding 
in all he undertook. He could take the cork 
out of a rum-bottle without the aid of a cork- 
screw; beat a drum like the most experienced 
drummer, and blow a trumpet that, like the 
Bummons to the last judgment, pierced to the 
very marrow. If a lady visiting him let fall 
her glove or her handkerchief, master Jack 
dropped on one knee like a courteous knight, 
and presented it to her again. But who can 
enumerate all the virtues and accomplishments 
of this well-instructed young gentleman? It may 
be boldly asserted that master Jack was the first 
gentleman of the lion court of Schjnbrunn, and 



surpassed even the politely soliciting bears in 
grace and dexterit)'. 

An unexpected occurrence; or rather the con- 
sequences of a bad calculation, suddenly pro- 
duced a melancholy change in the whole being 
of the gifted Jack. This occurrence was his 
acquaintance with miss Djeck, vis-a-vis to which 
viciously disposed lady, he had been unad- 
visedly quartered. Jack, who, receiving so 
many visits daily, might be said to live in the 
great world, had become acquainted with many 
a young lady without showing further civility 
than any cavalier might offer in pure courtesy 
to any lady. But this particular lady, who took 
up her abode in his very house as it were, pro- 
duced a magical effect upon him. Her eyes, 
tlje ivory of her teeth, and the unspeakable 
charm of her gray cheek, excited in him the 
lii^liest desire to call her his own. To the in- 
describable vexation of his tutor he forgot all 
his learning, all his accomplishments. His 
gentleness was changed to fury, his universal 
philanthropy to the most hostile feeling against 
all the world. In short, his mind which before 
resembled a well-cultivated field, now became 
like a garden laid waste. Ah, love, to what a 
c(mdition didst thou not reduce this thy poor 
victim! 

His faithful friend, M. Henri, dares no longer 
venture near him, for if he does. Jack immedi- 
ately draws his sword, that is his club, which 
he whirls aloft in the air, threatening to crush 
to pieces all that approach him. I found M. 
Henri perfectly inconsolable. When I asked 
him why the female elephant had been placed 
so directly before her admirer's eyes, he burst 
out into invectives against certain persons, from 
which I gathered, that either there was no other 
place for the newly-purchased lady, or that they 
were in hopes of founding a race of Djecks and 
Jacks from a marriage beiAveen the pair. Pack- 
ed up in his finger-thick hide, master Jack was 
moving his enormous mass of bone up and 
down the balcony of his house, throwing his 
weight now on the right, now on the left leg. 
Occasionally he tossed his trunkaboutas a man 
might bite his lips in suppressed anger. His 
little eyes looked quite calm, though his keeper 
assured us the creature was full of flame and 
fury. He seemed to take no notice of any thing, 
but that was, as we were assured, because, caged 
within his bars, he saw he could do no mischief. 
Any object, living or dead, that came within the 
reach of his trunk or his feet, would be dashed 
or trampled to pieces immediately. On the bread 
we threw to him, he never deigned to bestow 
the most superficial notice, while miss Djeck 
directly opened her soft fleshy mouth, and snap- 
ped up every morsel of the roll. 

At noon the lady was let out to talce the air 
in the meadow. Behind the thick beams and 
trunks of trees forming the palisade we could 
watch her proceedings. She walked gravely 
down the path leading Lo the meadow, also 
strongly fenced, then turned to the left and stood 
awhile before the passage leading to Jack's 
apartment, as if to say, good morning, but as 
he did not appear, she went to take her prome- 
nade on the turf and finish her toilet, wherein 
she was assisted by a fresh breeze. It blew a 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



8S 



lick cloud of dust and straws over her broad 
ides. Jack, we are told, tliey durst net let out 
' tlicy would not expose both trees and walls 
) the greatest danger. 

The larger species of animals have for the 
lost part their separate sections of the garden, 
ut of the feline races many specimens are 
idged in one house. Among them is a lii)n, a 
orn republican, for he is a native of Hamburg, 
,ot very imposing in size, but with a very fine 
xpressive head. 

There is certainly deeply rooted in the human 
oul a peculiar pleasiiie in the enjoyment of 
I'hat is dangerous, and that with the timid as 
vqU as the courageous, with this difference, that 
he former love danger only when they are cer- 
ain it will not affect them personally. Ourcom- 
lanion in Sch^nbrunn who, if all signs deceived 
lot, was an arrant poltroon, would persist, in 
pite of the intreaties and prohibitions of the 
reepers,iii teazing the lions and tigers with his 
iding whip till they got up and showed their 
eeth. We on our side could not withstand the 
emptation of creeping into one of the cages to 
;xamine its internal arrangements. It was a 
eopard house; the walls were carefully plated 
vilh iron and painted light blue. The arrange- 
nents for carrying away all dirt, and the divi- 
sion into front and back dens, appeared to us to 
)e very judicious. The leopards, it must be ob- 
served, for whom these apartments had been 
prepared, had not yet taken possession of them. 

None of the animals assembled here have in- 
creased so much as the Brazilian hares. A few 
i'ears ago, a single pair was brought here, and 
here are now thirty, and many have been given 
iway. The wildest and most timid of all are the 
Sardinian moufflons. They keep at the furthest 
3nd of the ground allotted them; and we dared 
aot invade it, as the keepers assured us, that on 
ihe approach of any person or thing strange to 
lhem,they would dash themselves in 'Iieir blind 
terror against the trees and walls. Even their 
young display this extreme shyness the day after 
their birth, and liy with such rapidity from all 
who approach, that it is imi^q^sible to catch 
them, M-hile the young bears and lions will allow 
themselves to be taken in the arms like children. 
Among the camels, who agree no better here 
than in Arabia, but live in a state of continual 
warfare, biting and striking each other with their 
fore feet, there was one so unbearably vicious 
that he was obliged to be kept chained in his 
stall. His bony figure, rugged and remarkably 
bare hide, faded yellowish gray colour, the flabby 
and diseased hump hanging down on one side 
of b.is back, his spiteful and venomous spitting 
and hissing when any thing human drew near 
him, and his self-contented ruminating when 
he was left alone, made him a most offensive 
image of the intensest egotism, all the more dis- 
gusting, that he was withal excessively dry and 
meager. But even the fat and well-fed of the 
camel kind look very little handsomer, 'i'he 
hair is seldom or never in good order, or suffi- 
cient to cover them entirely, so that the speckled 
parts of the body of a bluish colour show very 
disagreeably through the leathern skin. There 
was one such fat camel here which had been 
brought from Egypt. Of all tamed animals the 
camel is perhaps the most malicious. The ze- 



bus, — tame, gentle cows, from the East Indies, 
have a pond in common Avith the camels, which 
divides their territory as the Indian Ocean does 
the lands of their birth. 

There arc some remarkably beautiful zebras 
in Schrnbrunn. One was with young. Ano- 
ther had already brought into the world a little 
one, that closely resembled its sire, a German 
ass. A few stripes on the legs only betrayed its 
maternal descent. 

The birds are lodeed and provided for in a 
similar way, and there is a fish-pond for the 
water-foivl. Carp are fattened for the spoon- 
billed geese, who will sometimes swallow a fish 
weighing three pounds, and measuring a foot 
in length, without betraying the least inconve-. 
nience. If the lion's capacity for swallowing 
were of the same relative size, he could dispose 
at once of a whole lamb. It must be an en- 
chantingsight to see the ostrich run in hisnative 
deserts; for even the i'pw light springs that he 
takes in his poor fields in London, Paris, or 
Schonbrnnn, when the keepers allow him to 
escape from his narrow cage, afford a pleasing 
spectacle, in which the lightly fluttering plum- 
age of- his back plays a principal part. They 
have taken much pains at Schonbrunn to obtain 
youn^ from the ostrich, but have as yet got 
nothing*beyond the eggs. As the parents them- 
selves do not understand hatching, and as the 
German sun has not the life-giving power of 
the African, they put the eggs at first under a 
turkey hen, who sat on them, but had notwarmth 
enough to call forth such giant broods li-om the 
yolks. The heat of the oven was then fried, 
but with no better success. The parrots have 
Ir.id eggs,' but could never be induced to hatch 
them. 

Of all the imprisoned animals none make so 
melancholy an impression as -the eagles and 
vultures. These great, high-soaring, far-circling 
lords of the air, ought at least to have had their 
prison-house arranged in some measure accord- 
ing to their natural propensities. A wooden 
cage, with iron grating, is a fitter den for a lion 
or a tiger than for the rock-throned eagle's nest. 
In this narrow dungeon they cannot even stretch 
their pinions, and yet this motion is no doubt as 
much a necessity to them as it is to a man to 
stretch his arms and legs after long continuance 
in a sitting or lying posture: indeed it is evident, 
from the custom all imprisoned birds have of 
spreading their wings slowly and }'awningly 
from time to time. The eagle and vulture sit 
upon their perches as motionless as if they were 
mere stones. One whom I was watching held his 
head on one side and his eyes immovably fixed 
on the skies; another uttered a melancholy sound 
at intervals, and lifted his useless wing. Some 
of them are extremely old. I was told that one 
had been fifty years a prisoner. In fifty ySars, 
if we assume that one way or another an eagle 
can tly thirty miles a day, he might have tra- 
versed .500,000 miles; that is, he might have en- 
compassed the earth a hundred times. Good 
God! what a fearful destiny to feel this power 
within, and be condemned for ever to one nar- 
row dirty stinking hole! As the eagles are nei- 
ther cheerful here, nor display their natural 
peculiarities in any way, they can yield neither 
pleasure to the lover of nature, nor profit to the 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



inquirer into her mysteries; and people -n-oiild 
do much belter, I am ahnost inclined to think, 
to free them at once from the burden of life, and 
place them stutTed in a museum. A process to 
•which the eagles, parrots, and some other birds 
are subject to in their confinement, is that of 
washing with an infusion of tobacco to free 
them from vermin. Their feathers are rubbed 
with it against the grain. They suffer more 
from vermin in captivity than in freedom, he- 
cause they cannot guard themselves against 
them so actively. 

The parrot-house, to which, as to a centre, all 
the sections tend, is adorned with the portraits 
of many animals. The birds themselves are 
as thick here as in some primeval forest of 
South America; they are two legged and fea- 
thered monkeys, for they are equally restless, 
teachable, imitative, and comic. To the stern 
motionless eagle they offer the strongest pos- 
sible contrast, bearing captivity apparently with 
perfect c,ontentment. They are in eternal mo- 
tion, and seem to observe every thing with their 
ever-watchful eye, to meditate awhile upon it, 
and chatter without intermission. Sometimes 
the whole army of them would be suddenly as 
still as mice, and then break out all uigether 
into one fearful discord, as if they were put on a 
spit — an honour never yet accorded to thair black 
tasteless flesh. The gardens of Sch;'nbrunn are 
yet more distinguished for their plantations and 
their botanical collections than for the animals 
they contain. Not that the long avenues of 
heautifal, large, but most cruelly mutilated hme 
trees, are entitled to much admiration. There 
is certainly a method of altering the natural 
growth and figure of trees to the advantage of 
garden decoration. Even the French style of 
gardening;, as it is called, has its testhetic and 
poetical side, for the trees, trained into pyra- 
mids, gates, arched passages, columns, and 
other architectural decorations, are made to 
produce some striking illusions, and as art has 
entirely changed the appearance of the trees, 
and left nothing natural about them, we forget 
the original form, and willingly give ourselves 
up to the sportive deception. 

In Schwubrunn, however, by cutting one side 
of the trees and leaving the other in their natu- 
ral irregularity, they have produced nothing but 
deformities, resembling high flat walls on one 
side, and M-ild forest denizens on the other. 
They are not even clipped of an equal height, 
but shoot up here more, there less, so that the 
image of the wall is not kept up, and nothing is 
to be seen but the mutilated tree. If any one 
should turn columns out of marble statues to 
form a portico with them, he would be cried out 
upon for his barbarism, but if he only half cut 
his statues, and then made them do service as 
walls, we should thank him still less for his 
pains. They take a great deal of trouble, how- 
ever, to bring these trees into order, and have, 
among other machines, one fifty or sixty feet 
high, consisting of several stages, and rolled 
about on castors to enable the gardeners to 
reach the branches the better with their shears 
and axes. 

But we ought not in gardens like those of 
Schunbrunn, where there is so much that is ad- 
ipirable, to waste much time in finding fault with 



these lime trees. We wiUingly abandoned our- 
selves to the guidance of the obliging attendants 
of the gardens, and followed them through their 
vegetable treasury, and if unable to give a satis- 
factory account of its wealth, we will at least at- 
tempt some description of the more distinguished 
objects. 

There are many plants here, not in the green- 
houses but in the open garden, which we should 
seek elsewhere in vain. One of the most splen- 
did specimens is the Sop/iora Japnnica, a. large 
magnificent tree, with excessively fine feathery 
leaves. It stands on a beautiful lawn, and the 
windings of its boughs, and the whole figure of 
the tree, are so picturesque, that it has been re- 
peatedly painted, and has its portrait in the em- 
perors collection of pictures of the plants and 
trees of Schonbrunn. 

Artists are almost constantly employed in 
these gardens, in drawing either for the em- 
peror, or with scientific objects in view. The 
green and hot-houses are all handsome and spa- 
cious, and a new temple of the Dryads in right 
imperial style is now in progress of erection. 
Whenever a branch is broken by the wind, the 
vegetable surgeon is directly at hand to assist 
with iron rings, ropes, and bandages. By the 
root of the orchidaceD3 we saw a potato laid for 
those worms to creep into, which would other- 
wise attack the plant itself. For several trees 
standing in the open air, separate huts are 
erected in the winter, for exam|)!e, the Acaucaria 
excekct; and this must be elevated every year, 
as the tree grows rapidl3^ Every plant pro- 
duces, or attracts, some particular species of 
insect, and everywhere we saw the most judi- 
cious arrangementsfor their destruction. From 
the Brazilian fan palm long threads depend, and 
everyone of these threads is a panegyric on the 
vigilance of the Schonbrunn gardeners, for they 
are preserved in their entire length, neither torn 
nor in any. way injured, as we so often find them 
in other green-hoiises. The palms in which 
this garden is richer than either the Jardin des 
Plantes at Paris, or Kew Gardens near London, 
have very long, »very fragile roots, which re- 
quire fhe greaiest care in planting, and that 
that care is here bestowed the healthy slender 
growth of the palms bears witness. The Sienia 
pallida has a beautiful blossom, which has the 
appearance of being formed frotn yellow wax, 
and is very easily broken off. To avoid this, 
every blossom is provided with a prop composed 
of the slenderest splinters; many other plants 
had the like, with the addition, where the plant 
was very tender, of a little cushion of some 
soft material between the prop and the flower. 
I did not see a single neglected or sickly-looking 
plant. 

Among the rarities shown are also some Deri' 
drobium Pierardi, which require no soil for their 
growth, but are kept like birds in wire cages, 
and hung up at windows, where it is only ne- 
cessary to sprinkle them at times with water; 
the climbing Vanilla grows also in the air, not- 
withstanding the thickness of its leaves, and 
may be suspended by threads in a room; Sago- 
palm, (Cycas circinalts,) whose yearly growth, 
even in a Schonbrunn forcing house, is six or 
seven ells; a rich collection of Ericas from the 
Cape; and, lastly, a Cactus cerreus Peruvianus, 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



8.7 



eighty years old, and which has therefore passed 
nearly a century of its bare, I'niilless lil'e, rivcled 
like Prometheus to the desolate rock. 



THE FKATSCHELWEIBER.— FISHMON- 
GERS vAND DEALERS IN GAME. 

The most celebrated of all the women of Vi- 
enna is, beyond doubt, Maria Theresa, but the 
most noted are the so-called " Fratschelweiber." 
Like their sisters in the cabbage-market of Ko- 
riii^sberg, and the Halles of Paris, they are dis- 
lin^uished for their eloquence, their presence of 
mind, and their inexhaustible wit. It is said 
that the empr'ror Joseph went once incognito 
among them, and purposely overturned a basket 
of eggs, in order to have a specimen of their 
nratorical powers. Their chief seat is in the 
'' Hoi"," one of the largest squares of the city, 
where they deal in vegetables, fruit, cheese, and 
other articles of food. 

What I saw and heard of these interesting 
persons gave me more jmusement than I can 
hope to give the reader by a descriptiim, for 
when the naive originality of the Vienna dialect 
comes into print,* it gives no more idea of it as 
spoken, than the printed notes do of the sound 
Df a piece of music. 

I must confess, that often when I returned 
from the " Fratschel'ij^market I used to feel as if 
[ had been in a ma*d-house, so incessant and 
;lappcr-like had been the chatter about everj'- 
ihing in and about the world — about the " Gcrm- 
iriMu" which they were recommending to Herr 
<}on Nachtigall, an old hairdresser, whose po- 
verty shone out from every side of his worn and 
"ent nether garments, but on ^vhom they be- 
stowed the "fOrt" nevertheless because he held 
I few kreuzers in hand; about the butcher, "the 
stingy h( uad, who had sold them such a mise- 
rable litile bit of meat to-day." They spared 
aeilher the emperor, the pope, nor their minis- 
:ers, and, least of all, the people of rardv and 
'ashion, whom they saw driving about. I wi;s 
5ne day witness of the little ceremony used with 
;he latter. At the corner of the "Hof," a care- 
ess coachman ran over a hoy. In an instant a 
:rowd of women and men were in full pursuit 
af the Hying vehicle, in which sat a lady and 
gentleman of the higher class. But the Frat- 
schelweiber paid not the smallest heed to their 
ligh nobility. "Catch 'em there, bring 'em 
i)ack, the quality candle-snuffers! bring 'em 
aackl the scum of a dunghill! To run over the 
[)oor boy!" were the compliments that ran from 
mouth to mouth, as the mob ran bawling after 
;he geiules, who would probably have fared ill 
?nougli, if they had tallen into the hands of the 
rritated rabble. This class of persons in Vi- 
mna are by no means the patient, respectful, 
:imid herd to be met with in other capitals of 
nonarcliical states; for example, in St. Peters- 
ourg, Moscow, Prague, &c. The child, whose 
:ause was so energetically adopted by the Frat- 
schel women, was not even a countryman, but 
i little Croat, such as are met with in all parts 



♦ Nnaitempl has hpcn marie totransLatfi ihe Austrian 
miviruirti ilialpc.i, .'f which iiumeri)us Specimens occur in 
liis purl of M. Kohl's work— jTr. 



of Vienna, selling radishes and onions. Beyond 
a bruise or two, he had sustained no injury; 
indeed, he had rather been knocked down than 
run over. The women put on his broad-brim- 
med Croatian hat again, wiped carefully his 
wide mantle of thick white wool, in which he 
looked like a diminutive Orlando in a giant's 
armour, and bought some of his radishes to 
console him. The child, who understood not a 
word of the Fratschel jargon, looked round him 
in a scared manner, and then resumed his mo- 
notonous cry, "All tauten ratti, ratti,'^ (good 
radi>hes), the only German he knew. These 
Croats are very numerous in Vienna, and form 
no inconsiderable portion of the populace there. 
As they sell nothing but onion^and radishes, 
the Fratschel ladies are persuaded that Croatia 
must be a poor country, and produce nothing 
else. In the suburbs, there are, in the public- 
houses of the lowest class, great dormitories for 
them which they call Croat quarters. There 
when the ravens return from tbe fields to St. 
Stephen's tower, the poor Croats hrdd'e together 
after the fatigues of the day. and sleep in the 
same thick cloaks that have sheltered them 
from the heat during the day. "They live like 
so many cattle," said one of the Fratschel wo- 
men to me, " they haven't even a bedstead, let 
alone a maltrass. They lie o' nights and holi- 
days on the?r bellies, and are fit for nothing but 
to sell onions." 

How long the peculiar habits and arrange- 
ments of a town will maintain themselves, and 
more frequently in small things than in great, is 
seen in the tish-stands of Vienna, \^iiich, in 
passing thnui'Jih Lc'up'Mstadt, ate discovered to 
the right of Ferdinand's-bridge. Although these 
stands are so easily moved, consisting merely 
of sheds upon tloats, that look as if they were 
anchored by the river-side only for a time, yet 
they have made good their claim to the place 
fiir centuries, and as long as people have con- 
sumed fish in Vienna, so long has it been cus- 
tomary to offer it for sale at that part of the 
Danube-canal. The corporation of fishmongers 
belong, in many German cities built on rivers, 
to the oldest and most privileged bodies, from a 
very simple cause, namely, that they carry on a 
business which naturally was the first to arise 
in the immediate neighbourhood of a river, and 
one that often occasioned the foundation of a 
town there. In Vienna they enjoy great privi- 
leges, which have been ratified by all their em- 
perors; yet, in modern times no trade, with the 
exception of that of wig-makers, has declined 
so much from its former splendour. The re- 
formation, and the present more lax observance 
of the fasts, even in catholic countries, have 
greatly reduced the consumption of fish; and 
great are the complaints in this respect in Vi- 
enna. 

"In former times," said an old dealer in fish 
to me, "there often came fifteen or sixteen wa- 
gons laden with fish to Vienna, and now they 
call out as if it were a wonder if only two or 
three come in one after the other. My late fa- 
ther, who lived in the good times, used to bring 
three or four hundred measures of sprats at 
once to market, and I, his son and successor, 
think myself extremely lucky if I can get rid of 
thirty, so much are the times changed. For- 



83 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



merl\', I mean about forty or fifty years ago, 
people had s-nne regard for religion and fast- 
days, and I kno\v some great houses where on 
Fridays not as miich meat was allowed as would 
go on the point of a knife. And then the con- 
vents in Vienna, what a consumption of fish 
was there! There were the ("armelites, the Au- 
gustines, the Minorites, the Barbarites, and all 
the rest of them! I recollect there was one con- 
vent where the monks used to fast the whole 
year through, and where we used to carry the 
most delicate kinds of fish by cart-loads. But 
that's all over now. The great people don't 
trouble themselves about fasting and eating fish, 
and even the jaonks are grown more impious. 
Nobody, now-a-days, knows what a fine fish is; 
my father used to tell me that in Maria The- 
resa's time as much as two and three hundred 
weight of fokasc/i would be sold at a time. Now 
when a great man buys a fokasch, it's easily 
carried home in a napkin, and they seem all to 
have made a vow to eat nothing but liesh. 

"And then many changes in housekeeping 
have done a great deal of mischief to us fish- 
dealers. Formerly in most great houses the 
servants used to be fed by their masters, and 
then it was more with fish than with meat, 
which was dearer. Now the domestics have 
become more independent, they Jiave more 
wages and feed themselves, and liKe better to 
eat" flesh than fish. Formerly, a counsellor's 
lady would go herself to the market to buy fish; 
now she leaves all that to the cook, who is be- 
come a greater lady than the cuurt counsel/oretss, 
and people choose rather to buy from the game- 
market than from us. Then folks are all more 
disorderly and extravagant than they used to be. 
Once even poor folks would leave so much be- 
hind them that their children might at least have 
their dish offish at the funeral— now they leave 
nothing but debts, with which the devil himself 
could buy no fish. In old times at every dinner 
some choice fish was always amongst the chief 
dishes— it is not so now. The liichtenstein 
seldom gives a dinner, the KoUowrat only once 
a month. But such noblemen as old Zichy 
(God bless his memory), he used plenty of fish 
— liked it well, and knew when it was good — 
there are no such men now — at least not in 
Vienna, and it seems almost as if people thought 
God had put the fish in the water for nothing." 

Up to the last point my worthy trader might 
be in the right, but there is after all, plenty of 
fish still eaten in Vienna, and even distant 
waters are laid under contribution. The Plat- 
ten See in Hungary furnishes in great abundance 
the delicate fokasch. 

In winter, oysters, lobsters and crabs are 
brought from the Adriatic, the former packed in 
ice, the latter in chests pierced with holes upon 
laurel leaves, on which they rest before they 
have reached them on the table of the gourmand. 
The ponds of Bohemia also yield a great quan- 
tity of fish, but the larger part of the consumption 
is supplied by that great arm of the Danube that 
passes through the city. 

The fishermen, from whom there is as much 
to be learned now as at the time of the Christian 
era, gave me much interesting information con- 
cerning their trade. They told me that the 
sturgeons ascend to about sixteen miles from 



Vienna. Presburg is the highest point where 
they are caught; the greater part come from 
Pesth. Four years ago jhey captured there a 
sturgeon of ten cwt., the largest that had been 
seen in Vienna for a long time. Up as far as 
Ulm, no eels* are found in the Danube or its 
tributaries. All the fish of this species, used in 
Vienna, come down from Bohemia. Neither is 
there any salmon in the Danube — it comes from 
the Elbe and the Rhine; salmon trout arecai?ght 
in the lakes belonging to the estates of the Salt- 
chamber. Kopen, perhaps from kopf (head), 
are very small fish with very large heads. They 
are caught in the same waters as the trout, in 
the Traun and other mountain streams, and are 
animals of prey. When properly dressed it is 
a very well tasted fish, and is used sometimes 
as a garnish to dishes whereon larger fish are 
served. The finest fish in the Danube are the 
.sc/ull and huchen. The latter is like a trout in 
form, but weighs from fifty to sixty porinds. As 
the kopen are without bones, so the kuchen have 
no scales, or scales so small as to be scarcely 
perceptible, for Avhich •reason they are the fa- 
vourite fish of the Vienna Jews, who eat no fish 
Aviih scales, and are, therefore, so in love with 
huchen that they will pay almost any price for 
it. The small sturgeon, often so strongly re- 
commended by the hotel waiters to strangers in 
Vienna, come from the Hungarian Danube. 
They are easily entangled % the snout in a net, 
and caught many at a time. I was told some 
remarkable circumstances relative to the influ- 
ence of the waters flowing through the city. 
The Ash-dealers maintain that all water coming 
from the streets, canals, and sluices, is so poi- 
sonous, that it kills the fish in immense quanti- 
ties. After a sudden violent shower in summer, 
when the whole town disgorges its filth, and the 
contents of all the drains stream at onc€ into 
the Dant\be.many thousandcwt. (the fish-dealers 
weigh the creatures in thought, while they are 
still at large in their own element) are sure to 
lose their lives. In the summer of 1833, the 
Danube was extremely low; sutldenly a violent 
storm of rain raised its waters nearly ten feet 
higher, and the stream from the city came out 
like ink. The fish, which are cleanly animals, 
rushed as if quite desperate to the surface, leapt 
high into the air, and fell in multitudes upon the 
banks of the river; a most stupid proceeding on 
their part, as by going up a little farther, they 
might have come to clear water. 

The words that had escaped my friend the 
fislimonger respecting the £:reat consumption of 
game, which it was evident had excited his envy 
not a little, induced me to think that I should 
find this branch of industry in a more flourish- 
ing condition than his own, and so in fact I did. 
When we consider the wealth of Bohemia in 
wild animals suited to the table — when we con- 
sider the numerous water-fowl that frequent the 
lakes of Hungary, the large scale on which the 
stag-hunts are carried on to the south of the 
Flatten See, the chamois met with in great herds 
in the neighbouring Styria, and when we con- 



* There are no eels in the S'Hith Russian strpama, nor 
in any of the rivers llnwuis intu the Black j>ea, lill we 
arrive al a very cimsjderable ilislance Iroiii the sea So 
ai least I was assured by a person well acquainieU with 
ihein. 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



;ider that Vienna lies exactly in the middle of 
hese inexhauf^tible preserves, It may be readily 
)elieved thai its markets are the best supplied 
dlh this species of cow/e.v/<We of any city m Eu- 
ope. How great the quantity consumed was 
ihown shortly before my arrival on the folloM"- 
ng occasion. I'he city authorities had sub- 
ected all .same broug;ht into Vienna to a tax of 
lix kreuzers per head, and the impost was levied 
!ven on every little wild duck and teal from the 
Danube levels. As these smaller articles could 
lot bear so heavy a taxation, the trade in them 
;eased almost entirely. Hereupon tlie dealers 
bund themselves obli2:ed to represent to the 
LUthorities the greatness of the injury done 
hem; that they had been accustomed to bring 
lalf a million yearly of these smaller birds to 
K'ienna, which were now never brought at all; 
hat numbers of persons who had gainetl a live- 
ihood by catching teal and M'ild-duck, were now 
iuddt-niy thrown out of employ, and that hence 
t would be necessary to impose the tax only on 
he larger kinds. The remonstrance was at- 
ended to, chiefly at the instance of one wealthy 
ind influential tradesman, with whom I became 
icquainted, and I found much occasion to ad- 
nire the vast nature of his dealings, and the 
Jxtent and variety of his information. To buy 
I piece of game from the hunter, and give it to 
he cook to be dressed, seems so very simple an 
iliair, that it is not easy at first to understand 
low it should give a man any position in the 
state. 'I'he links of our social transactions, 
lowever, are like those of the sciences, so inti- 
mately connected one with the other, that it is 
scarcely possible to carry on anyone branch on 
1 grand scale, without becoming in some mea- 
sure familiar with others. It would be difierent 
f the stag had only flesh; he would then con- 
cern the cook only. But his antlers are wanted 
jy the turner, his skin by the tanner. The 
'eathers of the birds are of use in many trades; 
:he naturalist is often indebted to the civility of 
:he dealer in wild fowl. The grandees find it 
«-orth while to give hirn good words, to increase 
"he profit of their hunting-grounds, or to secure 
the suj)ply of their kitchens. His connection 
extends even to the imperial court, for it is 
known that on extraordinary occasions, such as 
1 visit from the heir to the Russian throne, he 
may be relied on for extraordinary supplies, 
such as a Polish elk, or a set of Russian heath- 
cocks. 

• As I was already partially informed of these 
relations, I was not at all surprised to find my 
game merchant a clever, enlightened man, well 
acquainted with many branches of natural his- 
tory, not ignorant of anatomy and geology, tho- 
roughly informed of all that related to the chase, 
and the manner of life and habits of the ani- 
mals; one who had studied the works of Cuvier 
and Buflbn, and could severely criticise the ex- 
aggerations, flourishes, and extravagant asser- 
tions of the latter; who spoke of Count X., and 
Prince Y., as of persons with whom he was 
well acquainted, and related how the government 
had had it in contemplation to effect some change 
in the game resources as he called them, but had 
desisted on his representations. Nor did it after- 
wards excite my astonishment, when I found 
an artist employed among the antlers of various 
7 



kinds, and among the plaster castsi, of different 
descriptions of animals. While I was with my 
merchant, there came a professor of natural 
history, and said to him, " I am come, my dear ' 
Mr.N., to .«?«£// about a little, and see if you have 
any thing new for me." And he was followed 
by a gentleman who also came to smell nhowi, 
and invite Mr. N. to a hunting-part)'. These 
dealers in game are as fond of the peculiar 
odour of the wild creatures they deal in, as ma- 
riners are fond of their pitch and tar; and use 
the expression smell about as a technical term 
for a visit. I " sme//" often in at the house of 
Mr. N., and always found some interesting peo- 
ple there. Those who have much to do with 
nature are almost alvva3's interesting. One day 
I met there a Styrian chamois hunter, who re- 
lated to me many-interesting adventures he had 
met with in pursuit of those animals. Observing 
that I occasionally made a note of what I heard, 
he said, "Ah, write it all down, and I'll tell you 
something about the cunning of the chamois 
that no one has heard before." The previous 
year he had found a geis (female chamois) ready 
to bring forth. He had followed her for eight 
days, to see where she would deposit her young. 
Sometimes he took of!' his shoes, and climbed 
on his bare feet like a cat; and once when he 
had to clamber up the steep face of a rock, he 
cut-off all the buttons from his clothes, that they 
might not make a '"jingle." At last he disco- 
vered the two )'oung ones in a niche at the top 
of a high rock, in a "Ms//," as the hunters call 
it. The little ones were sporting around their 
mother, who glanced from time to time down 
into the valley, to watch for any hostile approach. 
To avoid being seen, our hunter made a great 
circuit, and so reached a path that led to the 
"kastl." Exactly in front of the niche the rock 
descended perpendicularly to an immense depth. 
At the back was another steep descent. Some 
fragments of rock formed a kind of bridge be- 
tween the larger masses, but these were placed 
too high to be accessible to the httle ones, and 
could only be available for their mother. The 
hunter rejoiced as he contemplated this position, 
and pressed upon the animals, whose escape 
seemed impossible. When the old one caught 
sight of him, and measured with a glance the 
unfavourable disposition of the rocks, she sprung 
upon the hunter with the fury that maternal love 
will breathe into the most timid creatui'cs. The 
danger of stich attacks from the chamois is less 
from the thrust, which is not very violent, thaa 
from the endeavour of the animals to lix the 
points of the horns, which are bent like fish- 
hooks, somewhere in the legs of the hunter, and 
then press him backwards down the precipices. 
It happens sometimes that the chamois and 
hunter thus entangled roll into the abysy' toge- 
ther. Our hunter was in no condition to fire at 
the advancing chamois, as he found both hands 
necessary to sustain himself on the narrow 
path; he therefore wai'ded off the blows as well 
as he could with his feet, and kept still advan- 
cing. The anguish of the mother increased. 
She dashed back to her young, coursed round 
them with loud cries, as if to warn them of the 
danger, and then leaped upon die before-named 
fragments of rock, from which the second but 
more diflicult egress from the grotto was to be 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



won. She then leaped down again to her little 
ones, and seemed to encourage them to attempt 
the leap. Iii vain the little creatures sprang and" 
■wounded their foreheads against the rocks that 
were too high for them, and in vain the mother 
repeated again and again her tirm and graceful 
leap to show them the ■vva3\ All this xvas the 
work of a few minutes, whilst the hunter had 
jig'ain ailvanced some steps nearer. He was 
just preparing to make the last effort, when the 
following picture, which was the particular cir- 
cumstance he referred to in speak'ing of the 
chamois's cunning, met his astonished eyes. 
The old chamois, fixing her hind legs finnly on 
the rock behind, had stretched her body to its 
utmost length, and planted her fore feet on the 
rock above, thus forming a temporaiy bridge of 
her back. The little ones seemed in a minute 
to comprehend the design of their mother, sprang 
upon her like cats, and thus reached the point 
of safelv. The picture only lasted long enough 
to enable their )nii-siicr to make the last step. 
He sprang mlo (he niche, thinlciug himself now 
sure of llie young chamois, hiU all three were 
ofl" v/ilh the speed of the Avind, and a couple of 
.shots that he sent after the fugitives, merely an- 
nounced by their echo to the surrounding rocks, 
that he had missed his game. 

The chamois are more numerous in the Tyrol 
than in Switzerland, and more numerous in the 
Styrian Alps than in the Tyrol. The wild goats 
come only as far as the opposite v.-estern end of 
the Alpine chain. They have been quite driven 
away from the eastern and middle portions, the 
highest and most inaccessible summits of the 
Savoyan Alps alone afford at present thai degree 
of solitude and rocky wildness which is requisite 
for them. They are now protected in Savoy by 
a very severe law, Avhich condemns to death any 
person who shall kill a wild-goat. Neverthe- 
less, there are people who cannot withstand the 
temptation of aiming at these horned kings of the 
Graian and Julian Alps, and it is said there are 
at this moment in the prisons of Savoy several 
of these adventurous hunters, who have been 
condemned to death, and have had their sentence 
commuted into twenty years' imprisonment. 
Two years ago a couple of living animals of 
this species passed through Vienna on their 
way to Russia, a present from the ruler of Savoy 
to the emperor. I heard that some time ago a 
Vienna dealer liad oflered a large price for one, 
and that in consequence a Savoyard had shot an 
old one and delivered it in Vienna. The man 
was discovered and pursued by the royal hunts- 
men, but was lucky enough to escape by the 
glaciers into Switzerland, the paths being better 
known to him than to his pursuers. 

My Vienna friend told me that by means of 
his acquaintance in Hungary and Bohemia, he 
often received rare animals, not directly con- 
nected with his business, and that scarcely an 
animal roalned the Austrian forests of which 
some specimen had not visited his shop. He 
took me afterwards into his ice-cellar, where I 
saw a great variety of creatures lying on the 
ice. He had had the cellar hung with Hnnga- 
rian mats, and the ice was likewise covered 
with mats. He said that it was not sufficiently 
known to the owners of ice-cellars, that by 
means of these mats the ice could be much 



longer preserved than when it came into imme- 
diate contact witli the air and the walls, and that 
a smaller quantity of it was therefore sufficient. 
Among his plaster casts of heads and antlers he 
had those of an enormous elk. He had given 
several copies of the latter to Austrian noble- 
men, who wished for them to decorate their cas- 
tles, a fancy that never occurs to the gentlemen 
of Lithuania and Poland, the native country of 
these creatures. We may see by all this on 
how large a scale the game dealers of Vienna 
carry on their business, and how highly its re- 
sources are developed. It were to be wished 
that the learned and cultivated on their side 
would sometimes turn the knowledge and special 
details which such people have obtained from 
nature, a little more to account. 



SUMMER-NIGHTS' DREAMS AND 
FLOWER FESTIVALS. 

In the Sans-souci gardens at Mrdling, there 
are nine tents of tastefully draped red and white 
cloths, pitched in a meadow, each of which is 
dedicated to one of the Muses, whose names, 
embroidered on flags, flutter over the tops: Cal- 
liope, Clio, Euterpe, and so on. In the centre 
stands a tenth, wherein a Vienna leaderfiourishes 
as Apollo, and regales the Muses with Strauss's 
waltzes. These muses are young maidens and 
old women, attended by cavaliers and children, 
who resort to those nomadic airy temples to 
drink coffee. Taking refreshments in this poeti- 
cal style is quite in the taste of the Vienna peo- 
ple, whose oriental fancy delights in mingling 
the loftiest matters with those of every day life, 
and always selects the most high soaring in- 
scriptions for the most trivial things. 

The Vienna people are like great potentates, 
who will admit wisdom only disguised in the 
motley; but they have reflection enough to re- 
cognise the hand of destiny that mingles in the 
most insignificant occurrences of life. There- 
fore they will drink their coiice in the temple of 
the Muses, and swallow the bitter draught of 
truth sweetened with the sugarplum of cheerful- 
ness. Hence the extraordinary dramatis per- 
souEe of Raimund's invention, the Sibyls as old 
maids, the Genii as bowling-green attendants^ 
the conjurers and magicians from Vv'arasdin 
and Donaueschingen, who pour forth unwea- 
riedly trifling jests and sportive wisdom in Swa- 
bian and Hungarian German. The titles d£ 
Raimund's pieces and their prevailing style are 
pretty well known amongst us, not so the style 
in which the proprietors of places of public re- 
sort invite the public to their enchanting popular 
festivals. I paid at first little attention to the 
announcements v.'ith which every corner of the 
streets was covered. But one evening late, i. e. 
at eleven o'clock, at which hour Vienna is as 
■still as a mouse, I met a man laden with an 
enormous mass of printed paper, busied in pull- 
ing down the old bills and pasting up new. I 
asked him to let me look at some of them, and 
he threw down a whole bale before me. Herr 
Lanner announced a fete with new decorations 
and illuminations, under the name of "A Sum- 
mer Night's Dream." Herr Strauss had found 
a yet more attractive title for another fete, which 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



91 



as lo take place at Sperle. By the glimmer- 
g light of the lantern I read " Fancy and Har- 
ony in the rose-tinted vestments of Joy, a 
irai flower festival and ball." On a third bill 
e " renowned Daum" promised a " Festive 
liree and conversazione in his Elysium." 
our characteristic hands were annr.nnccd in 
e various localities, and further "the much 
Imired original representation,^- newly arranged 
r the present season," would take place as 
Hows: ^ 

In Asia (one part of the gardens) would be 
splayed three saloons, brilliantly illuminated 
the oriental tante. an avenue of pahn trees as 
promenade, adorned with the newly-invented 
[insparent Iris garlands, and at the end the 
ilendid principal view, giving an allegorical 
cture of Asia, beyond which the musicians 
(Uild be heard but not seen. 
In elegant Europe (another part of the gardens) 
Roman triumphal arch would be changed in 
moment to an amphitheatre, wherein the 
lympic games were to be produced in appro- 
iate costume. 

In America (a lawn) would be performed the 
liuired Railway passage to Australia, led by 
e gracefully adorned ladies and gentlemen, 
polio, Pluto, Diana, and Minerva. 
In Africa (a fourth part of "Elysium,") beside 
any favourite performances, Herr Starsch, 
mn Berlin, would have the honour of exhibit- 
g many new feats of dexterity, and, in the 
ilendidly decorated Harem, an African sum- 
er f te would be given. 

As a souvenir of this conversazione, every 
dy would receive, "in a festive manner, two 
ews of Elysium," with an explanation. For 
e greater gratitication of the respected visitors, 
e atmospheric air would be impregnated with 
e newly-invented Schiinbrunn flower perfume. 
I believe that not in India itself could a fete 
r the multitude be announced in more pomp- 
is fashion. I noticed many others announced, 
; "Nights in Paradise," "The Dance of the 
/^Iphs," &c. Each surpassed the other in high- 
)wn fancies. The chief allurements to all these 
aces are dancing and good music, and the 
•oprietors endeavour on such occasions to pro- 
ire some new compositions of the favourite 
imposers, Lanner, Strauss, or Fahrbach, com- 
)sed expressly for that evening. This music 
is generally some very striking title. A new 
altz of Strauss's was called the "Electric 
lark," another the "Evening Star," a third 
Fears of Joy." Musical soirees and "Harmo- 
t>us pictures" are almost always united with 
esc fetes, and hovrfar the composers of Vienna 
) with their "harmony painting" may be seen 
om the following specification of such a " paint- 
g" produced when the archducal conqueror 
" Saide was the hero of the day. 
"Storming of Saide (a new musical picture). 
" First Part. Approach of the English Fleet. 
"Second Part. Approach of the Austrian 
leet. • 

"Third Part. Characteristics of the Allies, 
id the Enemy. 

" Fourth Part. Summons to surrender, refusal, 
sembarkation, attack, cannonading, bombard- 
lent, storming and conflagration. 



"Fifth Part. Joyful demonstrations and thanks- 
givings of the Victors. 

"Sixth Part. Celebration of Victory and tri- 
umphal march." 

No parlies in Vienna are so numerous as the 
musical ones, M'hich have their ramifications 
from the highest society to the very lowest. 
Strauss, ilie most celebrated concert master, 
Lanner the most original, and Fahrbach, also 
well known to fame, are the leaders and demi- 
gods of these meetings, the tribunes of the peo- 
ple in Vienna. Like the Roman tribunes, they 
exert themselves to the utmost to enlarge and 
strengthen their party. When at Sperle, or in 
the public gardens, they flourish their bows in 
elegant little temples, amidst a grove of orange 
trees, rhododendrons, and other plants, and exe- 
cute the newest and most efl'cctive compositions- 
with their perfectly organized bands, (Strauss 
enrols none but Bohemians,) they seem in a 
measure the chiefs and leaders of the public. 
Before them stands a listening throng, with 
whom they are constantly coquetting, nodding 
to their friends in the midst of their work, and 
giving them a friendly smile as they execute 
some difficult passage. Every distinguished ef- 
fort is rewarded by loud applause, and new or 
favourite pieces by a stormy " Da Capo." Even 
in the common dancing-rooms, the music is so 
little secondary, that the dance is often inter- 
rupted by a tumult of applause for the musi- 
cians and composers. Even at the fetes of the 
Schwarzenbergs and Lichtensteins, a certain 
familiar understanding with the favourite mu- 
sicians may be observed, which, aniong a people 
less enthusiastic in the matter of dance-music, 
would be thought out of place. 

Strauss and his colleagues are always on tlic 
lookout for new inventions in the field of music. 
In almost every season they produce some new 
clashing or clanging instrument, or some extra- 
ordinary manoeuvre on an old one. Last sum- 
mer, in a Pot Pourri, Strauss made all his vio- 
linists, violoncellists, and basses, lift up their 
voices and sing the Rhine song, "Sic sullen ihn 
niclit haben," which, with the basses especially, 
had a very comic eifect. Lanner enticed the 
public by means of a young man, who sung a 
duet between a gentleman and* lady, in which 
the high and delicate tones of the woman were 
as accurately imitated as the depth and strength 
of the man's voice. No musical soiree ended 
without an imitation of the report of fireworks, 
wherein the rushing course of the rocket, and 
the sparkling hiss of the wheels, mingled in 
and died away with the musical tones. The 
next day then you are sure lo read a long article 
in one of the journals beginning in this fashion; 
"Again has our justly esteemed.ourinexhaustible 
Strauss (or Lanneror Fahrbach) astonished and 
enchanted us with a new efl^ort of his admirable 
genius. All who had the good fortune to be 
among his audience," &c. 

There is a printing-office in Vienna, the sole 
employment of which is the announcement of 
these fetes, plays, and concertos, nothing else 
being printed there but placards. The pro- 
prietor of this establishment, Mr. Hirshfeld, has 
many people in his service, who thoroughly 
I ..nderstand the most striking way of announcing 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



such matters fo the street public, by the judi- 
cious an'ano;ement of the alhiring words "Bal 
brillant," "Masric illumination," "Rose-tinted 
garments of pleasure," &c. I visited this print- 
ing-oflice, where the readers were employed in 
correcting the style and orthography of waiters, 
&c., and preparing their eloquent productions 
for the press. The monster types are all of 
wood; the elfect of the great black letters upon 
men's eyes and fancies is always speculated 
on, and the pictorial announcements of estates 
for sale by lottery, when all the letters are com- 
posed of pictures of castles and rural views, 
and where every million is represented en- 
t\j-ined with the elegant flowery Avreaths of 
hope, are really masterpieces in a psychological 
as in a xylographic point of view. The un- 
usual words, or those that do not frequently oc- 
cur, are composed, as occasion may require, 
from single letters, but the celebrateil names, 
Strauss, Lanner, im Sperl, — Elysium, Prater, — 
Golden Pear, &c., ^re cut out of single blocks, 
and many duplicates are always kept ready for 
use at Hirshfeld's*. It is the same with the | 
standing phrases, such as "Splendid Illumina- 1 
tions," "Dancing Soiree," &c. Whoever has 
arrived at the honours of stereotype in Hirsh- 
feld's printing-ollice, may deem himself a cele- 
brated man with in the walls of Vienna. 

Il is somewhat remarkable, although natural 
enough, that even these kind of announcements 
and posting-biUs, on which the most innocent 
things in the world are made known to the 
public, are subject to the censorship, in fact to 
a double censorship; firstly, to the supreme 
censorial authorities who bestow the "Impri- 
matur," and secondly, to the subordinate police 
authorities, who make any emendations held 
necessary according to circumstances and lo- 
calities. 

"They play them a trick for all that some- 
times," said my bill-sticker, whom I encoun- 
tered in the night as before mentioned. "Lately 
there was a ball at Sperl, M'here they danced 
till six o'clock in the morning, although they 
announced on their bill that it was to end after 
midnight; and when they were called to account 
by the police, they said that six o'clock in the 
morning was after midnight." 

A Mr. von X. has farmed fi'om the govern- 
ment, for the annual sum of five thousand 
florins, the exclusive privilege of posting bills 
about the town, and he has the right of sus- 
pending, on gates and public buildings, great 
wooden frames, on which bills are pasted. If 
he find, elsewhere, a suitable place for such 
things, the city authorities give him permission 
to make use of it By Christmas presents to 
the upper servants, he also procures leave 
from the owners of houses to make use of their 
walls. 



THE PROJECTED NEW QUARTER. 

One of the most interesting things I saw in 
Vienna was the beautilully executed wooden 
model of the projected improvements and addi- 
tions to the inner part of the city; five of the 
most considerable bankers in the city, Sinaj 
Pouthon, Eskeles, Maier, and Corth, have united 



for the plan and execution. This plan is — in 
Europe at least — sounusual,on so grandastyle, 
and so judicious, that one cannot but wish it 
.success, and linger a little in the consideration, 
of an undertaking, which has for its object so 
considerable an extension of the city. 

Perhaps in no city of Germany does there 
exist so peculiar a relation between the city 
properly so called, and its suburbs, as in Vienna. 
Four-fiiihs of the population of Vienna live in 
the-suburbs, &c. Prague, the city which oflers 
the most direct contrast in this respect, is almost 
wholly city. The reason is that Vienna, not- 
withstanding its antiquity, attained at a later 
period the dignity- of being a sovereign's resi- 
dence than Prague. In the twelfth century Vi- 
enna occupied only the fifth part of the present 
site of the city; and only a fortieth of the whole 
space, including the suburbs; at that time Prague 
had nearly two-thirds of its present circumfer- 
ence. It is only within the last two hundred 
years, since the time of Rudolph the Second, 
whose general residence was Prague, that the 
Emperors have resided constantly in Vienna. 
From that period the extensive suburbs have 
grown around the heart of the capital, and hence 
the contrast between the commodiousness and 
regularity of plan in the former, and the extra- 
vagant maze of building within the walls of the 
city. The streets are narrow, the houses six, 
seven, and eight stories high, and buildings, 
whose grandeur demands a great public square 
for their display, are stuck into narrow alleys, 
and lost in a forest of houses. In many of the 
streets it has been impossible to make a trottoir 
half an ell in breadth, the carriages are often 
compelled to drive so sharply against the walls 
and windows of the houses, that it is an ordi- 
nary manosavre of'the pedestrians of Vienna, to 
save themselves from a crush by leaping on the 
steps of the vehicle. Carriages are sometimes 
to be seen with pedestrians chnging to it before 
and behind, and full often may they have occa- 
sion to thank heaven for having found a house- r 
door open in time of need. The numerous 
thoroughfares, or Durchhiiuser, through private , 
houses and courtyards, to which the public has 
a conventional right of way, are of no small 
service to pedestrians. The whole city is pierced 
through and through with them, like an ant hill, 
and those who have the clue of this labyrinth, 
may I'un a considerable distance under shelter, 
and avoid the dangers of the carriages altoge- 
ther. In no other city of Germany is there so 
great or so uninterrupted a stream of vehicles; 
the corner houses are, in consequence, particu- 
lai'ly protected against this dangerous flood. All 
of them in the heart of the city have large stones 
placed slantingly, armed with an iron cap and 
rings, as thick as a man's finger, and the ex- 
treme smoothness which these coats of mail 
usually display, shows how often carriagesonust 
have ground "against them. The unlucky pe- 
destrian is provided witg no such defence, and 
it may be a question wnlther more people have 
their limbs crushed by chariot wheels in Vienna 
or in Bengal. 

All these evils have of late become more pal- 
pable with the growth of the suburbs, all of 
which naturally have their rendezvous in the 
centre of the city; not only have the people of 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



93 



rank who live in summer without the lines, 
their winter palaces within, but the merchants 
and manufacturers, akhough tiieir dwelling- 
houses may be without in the suburbs, must 
have their shups, wareliouses, and business lo- 
calities in the city jM^U; and the majority of the 
inhabitants, for ouXeason or other, desire to 
possess a little piaK iirrc there. 8!iul up in 
its narrow middle-age armour of bastions, walls, 
and ditches, the city cannot extend itself as the 
suburbs have done, which have stretched fur- 
ther and further into the level country, and 
swallowed up village after village in an ava- 
lanche of houses. As in all other cities of Ger- 
many, the old wrynccked, crooked streets of 
Vienna have been patched and polished, the 
passage houses have been increased in number 
wherever it was possible; some buildings that 
were especially in the way have been bought at 
a high price and pulled down, all projections 
and excrescences have been pared away, and 
the pavement laid down is as good as can be 
wished. But in an old city like this, where the 
houses stand Uke rocks, and the streets run 
through them like gullies and mountain passes, 
improvement is no easy matter, and all eftorts 
of the kind lag far behind the wants of the in- 
creasing population. The grand diiliculty is 
the foriilication of the inner city. This neces- 
sitates a breadih of space not less than from 
three to four hundred lathoms (the Glacis) be- 
tween the wall and the suburbs. If the works 
could be done away with altogether, and the 
glacis built over, the city and tlie suburbs would 
form one handsome and commodious whole. 
The advantage would be immense for the inha- 
bitants, for a very easy calculation will show, 
that the maintenance of the fortifications costs 
them millions yearly, directly and indirectly. 
Living would be incalculably cheaper, and great 
sums would be saved in conveyances and other 
matters therewith connected; they would live in 
handsomer houses, and traffic and population 
would increase from all these causes. 

However, from political motives, the govern- 
ment cannot resolve upon giving up the I'oriiti- 
cations, although we have abundance of unlor- 
tified capitals, and many are of opinion, that in 
case of a war, those of Vienna would be of little 
service. The part of the glacis between the 
Scotch gale and the Danube channel, is particu- 
larly broad, and on this circumstance the asso- 
ciation of banljers have founded their grand 
plan for the extension of the inner city. 'I'hey 
pro^jse to destroy the old fortifications in this 
part, erect new ones beyond, and thus gain a 
frecjspace for new buildings of not less than 
eighty thousand square fathoms. They have 
oil'ered to ehect the removal of the old fortifica- 
tions at their own expense, and have liad a plan 
drawn up by the architect Forster, according to 
which the new quarter of the city may be most 
commodiously united to the old ones. The 
public buildings, the churches, theatres, foun- 
tains, monuments, gates, &c., which the new 
quarter will require, these gentlemen will also 
erect at tlieir own expense, and give compensa- 
tion for the lost ground of the glacis, on condi- 
tion that the sites for private houses shall be 
sold for their advantage. As before said, they 
have caused the plan, ix\ all its details, to be 



executed in wood, and exhibited to the public. 

The old dark misshapen Vienna, in whose ob- 
scurities so many a fair pearl is lost, would 
tliereby gain a briglit regular magnificent ap- 
pendix, whose equal miglit bo sought in vain. 

A large open place with raonnmenrs io •V.s. 
emperor Francis, and the first statesmen of his 
time, and a church in the Gothic style, is pro- 
posed as the centre of the new quarter. A 
splendid, range of dwelling-houses, built in dif- 
ferent styles, to avoid a disagreeable monotony, 
is to form a quay along the Danube, an orna- 
ment which at present is altogether wanting in 
Vienna; and those public buildings now in the 
worst condition, the Exchange, the Post-office, 
a theatre, M'ith two supplementary buildings in- 
tended for institutions for the arts, and an ex- 
tensive bazaar, are projected on a very grand 
scale. On the river they propose to form docks 
with large warehouses; and four new bridges, 
to correspond with streets already existing, are 
to unite the old ciiy with the new. The pro- 
jected new streets are to continue the old ones 
and yet maintain a symmetry, with each other. 

This model has been exhibited to the emperor 
and the archdukes, and admired by them, and 
therefore hopes are entertained that permission 

I will be given to carry it into execution. 

j The chief subject of hesitation is again the 
fortifications; in r-emoving a part, it is feared 
the whole may be endangered. Might not the 
invention of the archduke Maximilian, in the 
Towers of Linz, help them out of the diffictxlt3\ 
The whole city, suburbs included, might be 
girdled with them, and thus the whole brought 
within a circle of fortifications. With respect 
to the glacis itself, full of monotonous avenues 
of sickly trees, dusty spaces, and swampy 
ditclies, there would be little loss. It is too large 
to be laid out as a garden, as has been done in 
some cities. But smaller and more modest 
spaces might be left free to be employed for 
this pu^po^e. 



THE QUARTER OF THE NOBILITY, AND 
THAT OF THE MANUFACTUUERS. 

The most animated parts of Vienna lie round 
Stephen's Place, the Graben, and the High Mar- 
ket; the quietest jiams are the "Burg" frotn the 
Place of the Minorites, the Herrengasse, Tein- 
falt Street, the back and front Schenkengasse, 
&c. " Our great people live here," said a Vienna 
man to me, " and here it is still, still as a mouse." 
I'here is not a shop in the whole neighbourhood, 
no busy-hum of traffic. It rains jolts and thrusts 
in the other streets, and one is put to it to keep 
from under the coach-wheels and horses' hoofs. 
It swarms there with Croats, Slavonians, Ser- 
vians, Germans, and God knows what nation 
besides, while nothing is to be seen in the aris- 
I tocratic quarter but silent palaces, before whose 
doors liveried lackeys are lounging as if they 
were masters not only of the houses but of the 
whole street. In this silent quarter — the Tela 
quarter — are the palaces of the Li(;htensteins, 
Stahreinbergs, Harrachs, Festetics. Cotloredos, 
Esterhazys, Trauimansdorfs, and Sch.'nborns. 
Antique escutcheons are displayed before the 
houses, dating from Rudolph of Hapsburg or 



94 ^ 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



Charlemagne, and the golden fleece gleams from 
the rool's. If the Utile sons of these grandees 
clamber over the roofs like the boys in other 
towns, they may gather all manner of aristo- 
cratic rcmini:.iccnces among the chimney-pots. 
Here also stand the proud edifices of the Hun- 
garian and Transylvanian Clianceries, the 
States House, the Court and State Chancery, 
the Bank, and several of the superior tribunals. 
The whole space occupied by buildings so im- 
portant to tlie empire is not more than two 
hundred fathoms in length and breadih; there 
is more than one public square of that size in 
St. Petersburg, and it may be safely asserted 
that in no other European kingdom is the great 
nobility so narrowly lodged. There are, never- 
theless, buildings here stately enough, if duly 
scattered, to adorn a whole capital. Not far 
from the Tein quarter, in the neighbourhood of 
the Jews' Place, is another where the manufac- 
turers congregate. Instead of armorial bearings 
before the houses, we see the firms of cotton 
and silk manufacturers, warelmuses for cloths, 
shawls, woollen fabrics, fisrliauienior coUon 
)'arn, white and coIouil-iI kintiing-colton, silks, 
btuifs, &c. These arc only tht? warehouses from 
which goods are .sold wholesale to the mer- 
chanls; the retail dealers are to be found else- 
where, and ihe manufactories are in the suburbs. 
There, especially i:i the western part, — there are 
Avhole quarters of them, all of recent date. In 
times of yore Vienna was a Roman encamp- 
ment, then the httle capital of the Austrian 
dukes, among hundreds of others a German im- 
perial city; and although as the imperial resi- 
dence it became the centre of commerce fof the 
empire, it is but very lately that it has been the 
chi^ef seat of manufactories, whose articles of 
taste are scattered over all parts of the Austrian 
and a great part of the non-Austrian world. 

Gumpendorf, Laimgrube, and Mariahilf, are 
the suburbs in which nearly the whole popula- 
tion IS einpioyed in manul'acturies. This is the 
case likewise in the villages of Funfiiaus, Sech- 
shaus, and others. Here the simple and uniform 
dwellings of the weavers and spinners are seen 
by hundreds, and on entering from the Tein 
quarter, we sci'in to be entering another world. 
The raw cotton comes here from two directions, 
from E-yptover Trieste, and from Americaand 
the West Indies over Hamburg. Tiie yarn 
dealers, spinners, weavers, and punters, all live 
near each other, and the meixhandise passes 
from neighbour to neighbour, or from quarter 
to quarter, till it reaches the haivls of the mer- 
chants and consumers. Siinie ol' the ni;uni!'ac- 
turers have also establi-hia'pi^ in Boheinia, 
where wages are lower, ami soveial have tiu-m 
on the Sa.xon frontier; but these are merely for 
show, little work being done there, though a 
great deal of English twist is smuggled over the 
frontier The English can'furnish yarn to the 
manufacturers of Vienna clieapcr than these 
can buy it from their own spinners in the sub- 
urbs. The latter enjoy, therefore, a protection 
in a fifteen per cent, duty, which, however, is 
considerably reduced by smuggling. In conse- 
quence of this protection, which the weavers of 
Vienna do not desire, because, without it, they 
could purchase the English yarn more cheaply, 
they are constantly at feud with their neighbours 



the spinners. Both have their meetings and 
unions for the protection of their separate inte- 
rests, and both seek to make good their cause 
with the authorities. The weavers have lately 
failed in their machinations against the protect- 
ive duty; the spinnera*Bevertheless, entertain 
fears for its duration; ^^hout it, they would not 
be able to make head s|Piinst the English. Be 
they as diligent as they will, and let their ma- 
chines be ever so well constructed, the spinners 
of Manchester, at the fountain-head of the com- 
merce of the world, would still possess advan- 
tages too great to be competed with by those of 
Vienna, though with the best will in the world. 
To mention one only: the Manchester spinners 
have a railroad to Liverpool, which enables 
them to purchase the cotton in smaller quanti- 
ties, as they may want it. They may use it up 
to-day to the last thread, and send to-morrow to 
Liverpool for a new supply. It is, therefore, 
easy to follow every variation of price, buy 
small quantities when it is dear, and larger 
when it is cheap; whereas the spinners of Vi- 
enna, wlietlicr they will or not, must take large 
quantities at any price, lest their work should 
come altogether to a stand-still. The great 
speculators of England, a.lso, have no existence 
in Vienna. These speculators make constant 
purchases of yarn, because the channels of the 
world are open to them, and they are, conse- 
quently, always sure of a market for their wares. 
In Vienna, they spin almost exclusively for the 
Austrian monarchy. There is no intermediate 
purchaser between the weaver and the spinner, 
and the former will buy no more than he has 
an immediate occasion for. 

The advantages which the English manufac- 
turers have over those of Vienna, and indeed 
over those of the -whole world, the manufactu- 
rers of Vienna have again over the other manu- 
facturers of the Austrian monarchy. In Vienna, 
they have the best information of what is wanted 
by the Slavonians, Croats, Poles, Ti'ansylva- 
nians, and from Vienna their w^ants and tastes 
are supplied. The old-fashioned gold stufis used 
tor the Upper Austrian caps are manufactured 
in Vienna, so are the silver buttons in use 
throughout Huiigaiy, and the black silk hand- 
kerciiiefs, witli red borders, which the Magyar 
shepherds twist round their throats. It is the 
same with hundreds of other articles. Being 
also the headquarters of fashion, Vienna not 
only supplies these people with what they want, 
but with what they ought to want. Vienna 
fashions, and Vienna v.vares, exercise thej|r influ- 
ence not only along the whole course of the Da- 
nube to the Black Sea, but even in Pol^iid and 
Kus';ia, extending even in some instances into 
the Turkish territory. 

Persons who understand these things do, in- 
deed, assert that Vienna productions will not 
bear a very severe examination. "They are 
but trumpery fabrications," said a native, well 
acquainted with London and Paris. "Every 
thing here is, as it \vere,b!uu.m together. We of 
Vienna are frivolous and fickle, but our taste is 
good, and we look mm-e to graceful forms than 
solid quality." Comparing them with what 
London and Paris can produce, this may be 
true; but if a line were drawn from the Baltic to 
the Adriatic, no city would be found east of it 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



95 



which could compare with "Vienna in the quali- 
ty, taste, or low price of its manufactures. Their 
low price has often procured them a sale not 
only throughout Germuny, but even in America. 
They make, for instance, ornamental clocks, of 
an elegance of wliich no drawing-room need 
be ashamed, for eight and nine florins each, and 
shawls for ten and twelve. 

The shawl manufacture is one of the most 
considerable; more so, indeed, than any other in 
middle or eastern Europe. The low price of 
the shawls has produced a great demand for 
them in Turkey. A shawl manufacturer, Avhose 
word I have no reason to mistrust, thought there 
could not be less than four thousand persons 
employed in Vienna on those articles; ~aud this 
fact is the more remarkable, as the rise of this 
branch of manufacture dates Ci'.ly from the year 
1812. 



THE SHOPS OF VIENNA. 

It would not be possible to give a very detiul ■.! 
account of the shops of Vienna and all tli/rr- 
with connected; but I must i)\treat the reader 
to accompany me into some, which afl'ord abun- 
dant means for obtaining an acquaintance with 
Vienna life, and furnish better pictures of it 
than do the columns of the Allgeiaeine Zeilung. 
• Of the shops for silks and fancy goods, none are 
at present in higher feather than the "Laurel 
Wreath," and it is worthy of a visit, were it only 
for the profusion of the studs of all kinds dis- 
played there. Before the "Laurel Wreath" rose 
to fame, "L'Amour" was the repository honour- 
ed with the patronage of the fashionable world, 
for it must be observed that all the shops of 
V4enna have their signs, liy which they are nmch 
better known thaa by the names of their pro- 
prietors. "L'Amour," however, has quitted the 
field, and retired to a fine garden and villa in 
tlie suburbs. In good time, ihe '■ L Jiif! Wrcaih'' 
will likewise withdraw to rejiose u|ii;n ils own 
glories; for in Vienna no one purMii's tins <:( fu- 
pation long before he finds hmis- II' ivuiliirl '..i 
take his place among the ■• n'lun is." anti, m 
leisure and retirement, to exchange his shop for 
a palace. 

Forraerl}', Augsburg was the German city 
most renowned for its silver chased work; now 
it is Vienna. The greatest establishment of the 
kind is that of Mayerhofer and Klinkosch, at 
the corner of the Kohl-market. Their manu- 
factory is in the suburbs, and vv-ell deserves a 
particular description. The greater part of the 
plate, to be transmitted as heirlooms in the noble 
families of Austria, is made there; hence a long 
series of their coats of arms, which must be 
stamped on every separate piece, is preserved. 
A large service of plate for Mehemet Ali v/as 
lately bespoken at this house. The number of 
great lamilies resident in Vienna renders it no 
matter of wonder that ihe number of engravers 
and medalists should be great hkewise, or that 
the art of engraving and composing heraldic 
shields should be industriously pursued. "It is 
only at Vienna," said one of these artists to me, 
"that the real true spirit of heraldry is to be 
found. We do not even admit a coat pricked 
elsewhere to be correct." 'Ihere is not only a 



constant manufacture of new coats of arras for 
the accommodation of those persons who are 
daily elevated from the public offices to be found- 
ers of noble families, but a never-ceasing demand 
for the reproduction of the old lime-honoured 
shields in steel, gold, silver, and precious stoiies. 
On all sides we find hands, and sometimes fair 
ones, employed on these hieroglyphics of he- 
raldry. 

Wiien Ave consider that the Dutch have car- 
ried on many a war about nothing but pepper- 
corns, that "the whole Anglo-Chinese quarrel 
turns on a few chests of opium, and that tallow, 
tar, and train oil, are not among the least of 
Russia's interests, and have often been objects 
of attention to emperors and their ministers, I 
shall not be reproached with an undue attention 
to trilles, if I enter a shop of more than ordi- 
nary elegance, for the sale of stearine candles, 
on the Kohl-market. Out of the white and deli- 
cate mass of stearine, they had formed a cavern 
full of stalactites, wherein was lodged a stearine 
i. >■ liear. The candles were put up in trophies, 
II,.' the weapons in an arsenal, and here and 
Oacvc, piled into columns, whose capitals were 
Clowned with flowerpots; indeed, the whole shop 
was ad;irned with flowers. By the invention of 
stearine, tallow may be said to have been enno- 
bled, and thus rendered admissible to the most 
distinguished drawing-rooms. In Vienna, it has 
obtaiiied admission at court; church tapers are 
also formed of it, although it is still a subject of 
discussion among the high church authorities, 
whether it may be admissible, instead of wax, 
in places of worship. If I remember rightly, 
some of the bishops have prohibited it. In the 
Greek church it will certainly never find a 
place; there the ancient, noble labour of the bee 
will be always held in honour. 

One of the later established, shops of Vienna 
is the repository for bronze wares, kept by an 
Englishman, of the name oS»Morton, of which 
there are now branch establishments in Milan, 
Prague, Pesth, and other capitals of the empire. 
Th(' haivlsomrst tl'.inirl saw there was a bronze 
;n i,;rv r.:' si,'!,,;,.,- :.-,:, h'll M'ii'cs, entwined with 
t';M|iii'.>;;i';\- V, i\/' [ •.;hi linu'crs iu wreaths. The 
first cage of this kind was brought from Paris, 
for the empress mother; seventeen have been 
since made, ten of which were destined for Con- 
stantinople. As I left the bronze shop, I was 
witness of a little scene, alike honourable for 
human and the feathered animals who figured 
in it. A couple of young sparrows, making 
their first essay in flying with their parents over 
tlie roofs of the capital, had fallen exhausted 
into the street, where they were picked up and 
carried off" by a boy, in whose hand they fluttered 
and chirped' most pitifqfly. The parent birds 
followed, uttering most sorrowful cries, fluttering 
against the walls, perching on signs of the shops, 
and venturing even into the turmoil of the 
street. I begged the lad to let the young ones 
■go, and as the cries of the old ones had already 
excited his compassion, he did so, but the crea- 
tures flying awkwardly against the walls, fell a 
second time into the street, and were again 
picked up. " Give them to me, for my children, 
give them to me," cried some women; but the 
remonstrances of the feathered parents were so 
pitiful, that in the end the whole assembled 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



crowd (all of the lowest class) raised a s:eneral 

shout of " No, no, let them go, 'jjive them their 
liberty." Tlieie were some Jews among the 
popiiiare, who cried out lomier than aa\'. Seve- 
ral times the birds were flung np into the air, 
and as often fell clown again, amid the general 
1 imentaiion of ail present. At last a ladder v.-as 
jirocured, all lent a hand to raise it against a 
.small hunse, and hold it fast while some one 
mounted ir, and placed the little animals in 
safety on the roof. The parents Hew to them 
immediately, and the whole family took wing, 
amid the general acclamations of the multitude; 
even a conple of "Glacefriinzer' (petits muttrts) 
stood still at a little distance, and eyed the scene 
smilingly through their glasses. 

Among the articles made in large qnantities 
in Vienna are iheatiical decorations, wherewith 
it furnishes all the stationary and locomotive 
theatres of the Austrian empire. Many shops 
confine themselves to the sale of frippery of this 
kind, parlicniarly diadems, and jewelled finery 
for the queens and princesses of the mtmic 
scene. Great numbers of these diadems are 
made by the goldsmiths of Vienna. They make 
use of a peculiar composition of lead, tin, and 
bismuth, called "stage composition." It has so 
good an effect, that at a little distance the de- 
ception is complete. The small cut sides of the 
vessel are not raised, but put together in a con- 
cave form; when the light plays on them, tliey 
have all the appearance of precious stones. 

It is a remarkable fact that the people of 
Hamburg have learnt only within the last 
fifteen years how to bind a ledger. Before that 
time the great folios were generally sent for 
fnnn England. The people of Vienna have not 
yet mastered this apparently simjjle art, for 
Girardet, the most considerable bookbinder in 
the city, who employs thirty-six journeymen, 
maintains among them three Englishmen for 
all the solid and cftfficult work, and hine French- 
men for that requiring delicate handling and 
taste. These people understand their work 
thoroughly, and what they do is admirably well 
done. They work apart from the German work- 
men, in order to presence the my-stery of their 
craft. Theie an^ m iiiv kinds of Jciither used 
for this purpose, which aie not in be had in 
Germany, so that tiie ^lulf as well as the tooh 
and the workmen must be had from France and 
England. Nothing can exceed the beauty, ele- 
gance, and solidity of Girardet's bindings, and 
their variety is quite as admirable. Every two 
months there is a general clearance of old forms 
and patterns, to make way for new ones. 

The last visit in my four of shops was to on« 
whose commodities were of a nature not usually 
made the subject of traltic in A^enna, — monkeys 
and parrots. The master of the shop told me 
that the bad veeather of that year had been par- 
ticularly injurious to them; he had lost monkeys 
to the value of one thousand seven hundred 
llorins, all having caught severe coughs, of 
which they had died. One of the creatures was 
still coughing, and I was astonished at the stmi- 
larity of the' sound to a hitman cough. I saw 
here a number of close dark cages, which I 
understood to be the private studies of the par- 
rots. In the evening their teachers shut them 
up in diese prisons, and then give them Uieir 



lesson. If the cages are not covered, their cu- 
riosity would make them busy themselves with 
other objects, and if they could see one another, 
they would converse in their wild Americaa 
language. It is king before a parrot acquires a 
new form of speech. Some are sent to board 
and lodge with t>ld women, of whom they learn 
the Vienna jargon. The majority had learned 
to scream out " Vivat Ferdinandus Primus." 



RAILROADS. 

It has often been matter of complaint, that the 
city of Vienna has not a more immediate con- 
nection with the many rail and water roads 
radiating from it. The passengers by the 
steamboats cpm|.'lain when they find them- 
selves compelleu to leave their beds soon after 
midnight, if they wish to set off at five in the 
morning, and those by the railroads grumb'ie 
equally at having to travel through the whole 
city, together with its suburbs and the villages 
beyond, before they can consign themselves to 
the energetic guidance of the locomotive. The 
various rail and steamboat stations lie two or 
three leagues apart, and some of them at that 
distance from the centre of the city. An in- 
credible number of hackney carriages are con- 
stantly employed in transportim^- passengers to 
the seviMal points. The magr.iiicent terminua* 
tif the A'leiina-lvaab railroad lies at the extreme 
outer line of the city. The position is so lofty, 
that they might have continued the road to the 
very centre of the city without being in the way 
of the smoke of a single chimney. The termi- 
nus in that ease would have reached about half 
way up to the summit of Stephen's Tower. ^ 

Before railroads were invented, many of the 
beautiful environs of Vienna were a forbidden 
paradise to its citizens. Those who had no 
other means of conveyance at their command 
than what nature; pro vi" let!, never reached Ba- 
den, Stockerau, or anv such distant point, from 
one year's end to another, or perhaps not in the 
course of their lives. Within the last few years 
the railroads h.ave given them a key to these 
Elysiums, and at every opening of a new branch 
of road the newspapers of Vienna announce the 
fact in a style that might have suited some of 
Cant liu Cook's discoveries, new and most cap- 
tivating descriptions of Stockerau, Briel, Helen- 
enihal, tic., being put forth to entice people by 
thousands to the railroad. 

The railroads have wrought a change in the 
whole environs of Vienna, and in the whole 
system of out-door pleasures. The Prater and 
the Au'jarten are lost, and comparatively empty 
now, when the seekers of pleasure can be car- 
ried away with so much ease to a distance of 
five or six (German) miles. The Prater had 
made the most extraordinary promises; it had 
announced a "Bacchus festival," to end with a 
faithful representation of the eruption of three 
volcanoes in Fernando Po. The three were to 
vie with each other in the splendour of their 
flames, and send forth smoke enough to darken 
the heavens. Preparations had also been made 
to blow up several masses of (pasteboard) rock. 
Nevertheless, the Prater was doomed to be de- 
serted that evening, and the visitors were throngs 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



6V 



hig to the railroads. On the other hand, the in- 
vitations for more distant places of pleasurable 
resort Avere not less alluring'. At Modling, 
Strauss promised his newly-composed dances, 
"Cotintry Delight," "Railroad Galopade," the 
"Naiads," Ac; and Lanner announced his mu- 
sical conv^f-sazione, his "Eccentric," his "Re- 
flex from the World of Harmony," to be given 
at Liesing. In Baden all sorts of " Fo/fr.s/cs/e" 
were to take place. There was to be the 
"Dance for the Hat," a Milan dance, in which 
the ladies dance through a gate, ami she whose 
transit falls in with a certain given sighal obtains 
a hat by way of a prize. In the various "Arenas" 
(garden theatres), "The Bohemian Girls in Uni- 
form," the "Elopement, from the Masked Ball," 
"The Maiden, from Fairy Land," and other at- 
tractive pieces, were advertised. 

Around the last coach setting off for the Vi- 
enna-Raab railroad the people were thronging 
and steaming. " Pray, gentlemen, let the ladies 
go first," cried some voices in the crowd. "Yes, 
yes, the ladies first, the ladies first, they all say, 
and here ain I shoved back again," cried a wo- 
man who had been pushed back from one of the 
carriages. She was launching in her despair 
into a high strain of eloquence when we invited 
her into our hackney-coach, and recognised in 
her, in spite of her shining kid-gloves, a Vienna 
cook. The cooks generally wear short sleeves, 
between which and their long gloves, a brown 
and scorched ring of an arm remains to reveal 
their calling. 

The Vienna-Raab railway (now that its di- 
rection towards Hungary is given up, it will 
probably be called the Vienna-Trieste railway) 
is probably the most magnificent railway in ex- 
istence. The terminus and intermediate stations 
are remarkable for their size and splendour. 
The waiting-rooms for the passengers of the 
first and second classes are more like drawing- 
rooms than ai^y thing else. 

There are three classes of carriages; they are 
all extremely capacious, carrying not fewer than 
fifty-six persons. Besides these three classes, 
there are the, so called, "saloon carriages," fur- 
nished with looking-glasses, divans, tables, &c., 
and destined for persons of wealth, and distinc- 
tion. At present the lines of railroad are to- 
wards the resorts of pleasure, and have their 
names accordingly: — Mudling, Baden, Neustadt. 
The time will come when more important names 
will appear — the Adriatic, Venice, the East, the 
Levant, &c. 

The baiJferSina is at the head of the Vienna- 
Raab line, as Rothschild presides over the Vi- 
ennn-Brunn line. At first the engineers were 
all Englishmen, but they have since been re- 
placed by Germans. "The English have not 
the phlegm of the Germans," said a Vienna citi- 
zen to me, "they were rash, and careless, and 
many accidents were the consequence." The 
precautions observed on the Austrian railroads 
are so great as almost to counteract the main 
object of these roads — speed. Very slowly and 
very gradually the train is set in motion, count- 
less are the whistles before it moves at all, and 
very moderate is the progress for some time. 
Long before they mean to stop, the speed is 
slackened, and astoundin^fly slow in its motion 
up to the terminus. It is True that if we could 



j be assured that every new precautionary mea- 
sure saved some lives, they could not be suffi- 
ciently commended, but the question will arise 
— do they really do so? It may so happen that 
the negligence of the lower functionaries in- 
creases in exact proportion with the extreme 
foresight of the higher. The surer the public is 
that precautions are taken by others, the less 
M'ill tliey take care of themselves. 

On the day I went on the Vienna-Raab rail- 
road we had, in our train, fifteen carriages, full 
of people starting from Vienna in search of 
pleasure, consequently, seven hundred persons. 
We encountered similar trains several times, 
and, I believe, that the number of persons car- 
ried out that Sunday could not be less than 
twelve thousand. The direction of this railroad 
galopade was towards the plain at the end of 
the Ibrest of Vienna. The hills are pierced by 
several valleys, beyond which lie tl* before- 
mentioned pretty villages of Liesing, Miidling, 
Baden, and others. Hundreds of men, women, 
and children, were disgorged by the train at the 
entrance of these valleys, and hundreds of fresh 
passengers packed in. Formerly a stranger 
required a week to visit all these vaunted places 
in their turn, now lie can be whirled there, have 
a peep at them, and be back in a few hours. 

We allowed ourselves to be complimented 
out of the carriage at Mudling, to enjoy the 
highly lauded vicM's of " in der Briel." We 
found a dozen of asses ready saddled, standing 
at the station. One of the donkeys was named 
"Karl Wizing," another "Nancrl," and her 
gentle daughter "Sofi," so at least the juvenile 
drivers informed us. As we were just three in 
number, we chose these three animals, mounted 
them, and trotted away into the mountains. 
The father of the present Prince Lichtenstein 
first brought the neighbourhood of Briel into 
notice. He caused the naked declivities to be 
clothed with woods, paths to be cut. and the 
ground to be laid out with taste; adorned the 
summits with pavilions and summer-houses, 
built a magnificent seatin the neighbourhood, 
and abandoned the picturesque old ruins to the 
curiosity of the public. At this present time 
several yet wilder, woody, and rocky valleys in 
the neighbourhood of Vienna arc undergoing a 
similar transformation. Cofl"ee-house civiliza- 
tion has put to flight the nymphs and dryads of 
the woods. The caves of the fauns have been 
fitted up for the sale of beer and wine, and where 
formerly a solitary lover of nature could scarcely 
force his way, the population of a whole quarter 
of the city are now gadding about iii merry 
crowds. « 

The ruins of the old castle of Lichtenstein, to 
which Karl Wizing, Nanerl, and Sofi carried 
us, are real ruins, a fact worthy of remark, be- 
cause the hills around are covered with a num- 
ber of mimic ruins, placed therefor decoration's 
sake. The old castle, one of the earliest pos- 
sessions of the iilustrious family whose name it 
bears, fell afterwards into other hands, and was 
subsequently re-purchased by the Lichtensteins, . 
with the lands and vineyards belonging to it, for 
six hundred thousand florins. It is a regular,, 
old, rock built, knightly nest. The durigeon 
lies right before the narrow entrance, and tife- 
first thing the stern old barons must have done 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



on stepping over their threshold was to give a 
negative to the petitions for freedom which the 
captives sent up to them in groans from their 
p'-ison below. 

The hall wherein the ancestrd pictures are 
suspended, has its walls partly cut out of the 
bare rc^ck, and partly of freestone. The bare 
rock also forms the floor. The oldest portrait 
is that of John of Lichtenstein, who died in 
1395, and tlie series is continued down to the 
grandfather of the present prince. The ladies 
hang in a neighbouring chamber, likewise carved 
out of the rock. It must be a real pleasure to 
be descended from this handsome, stout old race. 
They are all tall handsome ligures, and the 
daint}'- ruffs, padded doublets, short hose, velvet 
caps, gulden chains, and rich princely mantles 
of which they were never in want, sit on them 
in a most stately fashion. The handsomest 
among tljem is one " John Septimus vou Lich- 
tenstein, lord of Hanau and Ramsburic, son of 
Jorg Hartmaun v. Lichtenstein of Felsburg, 
aged :55 ye;irs." One of them has a tiger, which 
he is earossiiig by his side. Probably tlie pre- 
sent Lirlii ',i-.ti'iiis won'd as soon adopt a tiger 
for a h'-p-i'"- as ri\>iiiiie this uld rocky nest for 
a dweliiii'::-!il;u'i'. 

The an.'iidiiKi' Charlies is the owner of the 
lovely valley behind iiadeii. I never saw more 
courteous aililresses to the public than those 
posted up in the grounds laid out by the arch- 
duke for the public. " The respected public are 
requested to make use of the paths laid down 
in these grounds, in order to spare the young 
wood. No doubt prohibitions of the kind would 
Jiave a better effect, if such motives were always 
suggested. 

The handsome castle, built by the archduke 
just at the entrance of the valley, is called Weil- 
burg. Although M-e had the building constantly 
in sight, we were obliged to inquire the way to 
it twice, as we had got into some by-paths, and 
each time we received genuine Austrian an- 
swers. The first was, "I am not acquainted 
with this road;" afid the second, " This is the 
right road, the otlier is for themselves" {i. e. the 
owners). Schloss Weilburg is renowned for 
its collection of roses. The gardener told us 
there v/ere not less than eight hundred species 
here, but in this bloomless season, they all 
looked as like each other as so many skeletons. 
To make us amends, we saw a plant but seldom 
met with in German green-houses — the rose- 
coloured lily, with dark red spots {/ilium specio- 
sum pundatum). The site of the palace and 
garden is the most delightful that can be ima- 
gined. It lies on the borders of a hilly country, 
at the opening of a valley, in view of a richly- 
cultivated plain. On either side it is flanked by 
wooded heights, and behind is the narrow pass 
of the valley. Every thing required towards 
the formn.tion of a fine landscape is here united: 
the eleviiting view over a distant land, rich in 
life and hnpe; the warmly-tinted picture of the 
lovely valley close at hand, and the retreat into 
a friendly wooded solitude. The last was the 
particidar object of my research, and I found at 
the end of the valley a beautiful meadow, in the 
midst of thickets, by the side of a river. This 
was called the house-meadow. "Whilst Baden 



was swarming with people, but few found their 
Avay to this place. A little boy was exhibiting 
his skill on the violin, and received in reward 
of his masterly performance the large copper 
pieces of a few Avandering Meca;nas with the 
warmest gratitude. 

On our return to Baden we refresh^^l ourselves 
with a cup of cofiee and some excellent "kip- 
feln" which are better made here than in Vienna 
itself. They make them of all sizes, from half 
a kreutzer to five florins apiece. The more aris- 
tocratic arrjji)ng die bakers suspend a shield or 
crown of fcipfel dough over their windows, in 
the manner of armorial bearings; the fresh l|)aked 
are so much esteemetl, that many bakers, not 
content with making them once a day, inscribe 
over their shops, "Here bread is baked three 
times a day." Baron Rothschild sent for a Ba- 
den baker to Paris, where his artistical per- 
formances were so much approved of, that he; 
became a rich man in a short time. 

Life in Baden has undergone a great change 
of late years. Formerly the emperor Francis 
lived here in the summer, and, like king Frede- 
rick William at Teplitz, assembled much of 
the great world around his person. Both places 
have lost by the death of those two sovereigns; 
nevertheless, now that the railroad brings, daily, 
thousands into the neighbourhood, and inundates 
it with smokers, drinkers, and cooks, the plea- 
sures of the arenas have become of infinitely 
more consequence than those of the saloons. 
The baths will be great gainers. They are now 
williin reach of many to whom they were be- 
fore unattainable. Many invalids in public 
oflices come with the first train, take a bath, 
and return to the capital before their hours ol 
business. Prince Puckler Muskau observes 
that, in Vienna, people talk about a " lamprelk,'" 
or a " /larapluie," but know notliing about a Re- 
i;c)i.scli/r//i. I also had opportunities enough of 
reiiiarkiiig the fondness uf persons of the un- 
educated classes for sporting a few French 
phrases. W'hile waiting with some hundreds 
of persons in the room appropriated to the se- 
cond class, for the arrival of the train, I sat 
down near a very fat, very fine lady, who was 
parading her French to an acquaintance. "Com- 
ment vous portez vous!" said the lady. " Oh, 
ah, oui, bien," was the reply. "Prcnez place 
ici, voulez-vous?" "Non." "Pourquoi dond" 
" Non! je, je— Ah what shall I say, 1 don't know 
how to say it, but I'd rather stand," and here- 
upon he laughed out loud. " II fait tros chaud 
ici," jicrsisted she. "Ay, youmeaa it is very 
hot, yes, hut enough to stiiie one." "" Oui c*est 
trop," rejoined the fat dame, " it is too bad._ If 
they would but collect the heat, and put it into 
the engine, they might save their firing." 

Tlie^ drive back, at eleven o'clock at night, 
was really brilliant, and the precautionary light- 
ing of the road almost superfluous. The sta- 
•tions were illuminated with red and green lamps; 
the whole way along, lamps and torch.es were 
planted, and withal the moon shone resplendent- 
ly in the heavens. Late as it was, we met seve- 
ral trains, and, without any exaggeration, the 
engines were piping and whistling as nume- 
rously along the railroad as so many mice in a 
granary. 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



49 



SUNDAY WALKS. 

It was one Sunday afternoon that I walked 
into tlie streets to see what aspect the city bore 
at that time of the day. The workday and morn- 
inj? tumult had quite subsided, the constant 
"//o/ hoT of the hackney carriages, and the 
^'' Aufr of the car-drivers were silent, for 20,000 
of the inhabitants of Vienna were rolling over 
the newly opened railway to the newly disco- 
vered Paradise of Stockerau, and 20,000 were 
•flying by the Raab road to Mudling, Baden, and 
* the other valleys of the forest of Vienna; 50,000 
more were gone into the country for the sum- 
mer, and another 50,000 were gone after them 
for the day, to forget the troubles of the week 
in their society. Another not less respectable 
number of citizens and citizenesses were scat- 
tered over the gardens of the suburbs, the Pra- 
ter, and the meadows, and thus I remained in 
possession of the inner city, with a remnant of 
lackeys, beggars, and sick; the Turks might 
have attacked and taken it at that moment with 
ease. The domestics were lounging before the 
doors, and conversing with their opposite neigh- 
bours; the maius were chattering in the inner 
courts; the coffee-house of the "Orientals" was 
still full of company, for they were scarcely 
likely to approve of our way of keeping Sun- 
day. In the cathedral of St. Stephen, a few old 
women were telling their rosaries, and scream- 
ing their devotions through the church; and one 
grating voice among them, louder than all the 
rest, repeated, at the end of each verse, "Holy, 
holv, holy!" 

In the courtyard of one house into which I 
looked, I saw a little boy reading prayers aloud 
from a hook. He told me that he was eight 
years old, and that he* did this every Sunday. 
I took his book, and saw that he was reading 
the gospel o^ St. Luke, from the ninth to the 
fourteenth verse. He said it was the gospel for 
the day, and 'that many boys in a similar man- 
ner read the gospels on a Sunday before the 
houses of Vienna. When he had finished, there 
descended on him, from the upper stories, a 
grateful shower of kreuzers wrapped in paper. 

In the usual tumult of the town, I had over- 
looked many smaller elements of the popula- 
tion, v/hich i now discovered for the first time, 
as some inhabitants of the waters are perceived 
only when the tide has ebbed. I noticed for the 
first time the people v.ho hawk Italian .iiid Hun- 
garian cheeses about the streets. They are 
chielly from the neighbourhood of Udine, and 
also sell Italian macaroni. The greater number 
could speak as much Germ-in as they found 
necessary for their street tradic. 'J'here are in 
all not iess than thirty thousand Italians in 
Vienna, and the passenger is not unfrequently 
accosted with, '' I'uveretta! sie^nor niio! lacarifaJ" 
Beggars shoukl, out of polic}', always speak a 
fiireign language; it excites far more compas- 
sion than the language of the country. 

Going farther, I found a man standing before 
a lialrer's shop, occupied in scolding a liltle 
maidservant. She was a Bohemian, he told 
me, and added, "That Bohemia must be a very 
poor cunntry — every year there come thousands 
of thcin to Vienna — men and women, maids 
and boys. They learn as much Cifermaa as they 



must, seek a service somewhere, are very 
moderate in their demands, will put up with a 
bed in the stable, or on the floor, and when they 
have earned a few florins, they go back to their 
own country." In fact, if we inq ^ ? of a hun- 
dred people we meet in Vienna unat country 
they are from, the answer of tw enly, on an ave- 
rage, will be " Ich bin ein Behni" (I am a Bohe- 
mian). The whole number of the Slavonians 
in Vienna is, it is said, about 60,000, and of 
other Non-Germans 100.000. In the highest cir- 
cles as the lowest, the lt)reign element minj^les 
everywhere. 'J'he number of Hungarians is 
reckoned at 15,000; but of these many are not 
genuine Magyars. 

One could not in Vienna, at that time, speak 
three words to a man without coming to the 
name of Geymiiller. My baker, whom I had 
requested to show me the way to the Glacis, 
told me, by the way, that it was the oldest bank- 
ing-house, and had flourished for above sixty 
years. "The last Baron GevmuUer, however," 
he said, " was no GeymuUer at all, but an 
adopted son of his predecessor, and no baroa 
properly, but they had made him one. He had 
squandered 150,000 florins yearly; many, both 
of the rich and poor, had been ruined through 
him; and now this mischiel-maker had been 
politely shown the door; and allowed to go and 
live at Paris with his wife on the remains of his 
fortune, and they were not inconsiderable." 

During this conversation we had reached the 
Saitzer Ho!', where our roads separated. 

At last I came to the end of the city, and went 
out upon the Glacis. Here seemed to be gathered 
together all whose legs were loo short to gaia 
the open countiy beyond the extensive suburbs 
of Vienna. It was the part called the Water 
Glacis, Avhere there is some gay mosic every 
afternoon; numbers of little children with their 
nurses were lying and playing about the grass, 
and several schools under the guidance of their 
masters were doing the like. Some of them had 
pitched a tent in one of the meadows near which 
tJiey were diverting themselves. There is no 
other city in Europe where the children have 
such a pla)-ground in the very heart of the town. 
The benches were bare of other visitors, with 
the exception of one solitary Turk seated among 
the children. He was taking his coftee, and 
dividing the " kipfd" that had been brought him 
with it, among the sparrows which are con- 
stantly flying in numbers round the Glacis. I 
sat down by him to share in both his amuse- 
ments, and remarked a trick of the sparrows 
that I had never before noticed. Some of them 

J pre so greedy, that they kept fluttering in the 
r about us, and sometimes snatched a morsel 
of bread before it could even reach the ground, 
where the others were eagerly picking up the 
scattered fragments. 

Like a polypus turned inside out, the inner 
life being displayed externally, the dead exterior 
skin turned within, even so is the life of Vienna 
reversed on a Sunday. The swarms that on 
other days are driving and bawling in the streets 
and public places of the city, are then singing, 
dancing, eating, drinking, and gossiping in the 
houses of public entertainment without. All this 
humming and drumming was so little in unison 
with my idea of a Sunday walk, that I was glad 



100 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



to take refuge from the noise in a place I was 
sure of ha\ing more to myself on a Sunday than 
anv other day — tlie ilower-:.jardens and church- 
yard^. 

BeetlU' t. .'s monument stands in the Wah- 
ringer ceiiietery. His simple lamily-name is 
inscribed in gold letters on the stone: but of late 
the growth of a bush planted near it has almost 
overshadowed the letters. I asked the sexton 
why he did not cut away the boughs that the 
name might be more plainly seen; he said the 
friends would not allow it to be done. 

In every cemetery there is a certain form of 
inscription sure to be frequently met with. On 
half the gravestones in this place I read the word 
*' Ever to be remembered!" {unvergessL'ch) which 
seems to me as unmeaning as it is short. On 
many of the graves lights were burning in small 
lanterns among the llowers. It is a custom in 
Vienna to light these on the anniversary of the 
death of the deceased. The With ringer ceme- 
tery is one of the most distinguished lu Vienna; 
and many place on the graves of their departed 
friends [lowers of a very costly kind, for the sup- 
ply of which there is a greenhouse in the ceme- 
tery. At night two dogs are let loose to guard 
tlie property of the dead. 

Nothing harmonizes better with a grave than 
flowers, and byway of a conclusion to my Sun- 
day promenade, I went to look at the ilower- 

gardens of Mr. N . and Baron X , and 

came at length to Rupert's nui'sery-garden, which 
for Himgary, and for ail the other lands that re- 
ceive the seeds of cultivation from Vienna, plays 
no insignificant part. It is said to contain not 
less than 2000 species of vine, and 400 of pota- 
toes; the latter article must be particularly im- 
portant for the before-mentioned countries, 
which are still very ill supplied with this vege- 
table. Rupert's garden is also celebrated for 
its dahlias, the flower now so passionately cul- 
tivated in all European gardens. The proprie- 
tor says that he has 900 varieties, with different 
names for each. As we find certain insects and 
■butterflies hovering over certain flowers, so one 
is almost certain to meet in Rupert's garden 
some enamoured admirers of dahlias from dif- 
ferent parts of the Austrian dominions on the 
hunt for some variety of flower wherewith to 
complete their collections. Here, as in Eng- 
land, Hamburg, and Erfurt, they aim at the pro- 
duction of new kinds. The "Princess Kinsky" 
(white with lilac edges) is a creation of Vienna; 
" Baroness Herderleid" (bi'iL'ht lilac with a ilark 
violet coloured border), and "Count Funf kit- 
chen," are christened after Austrian nobles. 
The very newest productions of England .gnd 
■Germany find their way first to Rupert's garden, j 
A "Charles XII.," a beautiful velvet violet, 
fading in ike calyx to a tend* lilac, and at the 
outer edge pure white, was now blooming for 
the first rime in the Austrian territory. The 
last consignment had brought 84 new sorts, 
which were to come into bloom next year. Jt 
is worthy of note in how grand a style the Eng- 
lish gardens carry on their trade with dahlia 
bulbs. To tiie name of the bulb, the name of 
the producers of its varieties is annexed, and 
usually a beautiful drawing added to show what 
:the tlower wall be when in bloom. 

Towards evening I returned by the Glacis, 



and there witnessed a scene I shall not easily 
forget. A sudden storm of thunder and light- 
ning, that seemed to promise a second course of 
rain or hail, had scared all the juveniles en- 
camped on the grass, and as I^'.arne up. all were 
in full flight over the narrow drawbridges and 
through the small gates. The ntirses were 
towing along two, three, and four little creatures, 
and the schoolmasters driving their flocks before 
them. There was a thronging, bustling, and 
hurrying, as if the Turks had just entered the 
suburbs. "William, you stupid boy! what flo 
you stand still to spell Franciscus Primus forf ' 
(the name of that emperor is inscribed in golden 
letters over the gate,) " can't you spell enough at 
home] don't you hear the thunder!" — "Babette, 
will you let go of that chain"? this is not the time 
to count the links. See how you are keeping 
us." — "Good God! what's become of Seppi! 
He! child, run, run, the rain will spoil all your 
things." Thus screamed mothers and nurses, 
and all dragged on their small charges as if a 
second murder of the innocents was at hand. 
At the end of this century perhaps some grand- 
sire of seventy will date his earliest childish 
recollections from this storm, and relate how in 
the long departed year of 1841 a storm drove 
him with others suddenly from the Glacis of 
Vienna, and his friend may likewise remember 
how he was there too, and hoAv he got a box ou 
the ear from his nurse for sfopnins: to spell fran- 
ciscus Primus in the middle of the rain, and 
how a strange man dried his tears and led him 
by the hand after his attendant. 



KLOSTERNEUBURG. 

One day I Avent in a ffellwagen that started 
from Ht. Stephen's place tor the much-ta!ked-of 
Klosterneuburg. in company with a pretty little 
girl a!id her mother, a pale young woman whom 
I took- at first for a member of the corporation 
of semstresses, a little old mannikin, and some 
silent members (m the back seats of whom no 
more need be said. The little girl had a basket 
with some linen on her lap which she held so 
negligently, tl.at at the first jolt of the coach out 
it fell to the unspeakable terror of the mother, 
who announced the misfortune by a terrible 
shriek. The driver made a halt, and I went in 
search of the basket, which luckily had fallen 
Avitho »' tumbling out its delicate contents, and 
offered my services to hold it mnre .s^-riir.-ly for 
the future, through which small civility I won 
the hearts of iny comiianions, and a conversa- 
tion began that ceased nut till we separated at 
Kliisterneubur<r. Tlie! e was no want of subjects, 
for in a city like Vienna every night is sure to 
produce matter enough to employ, for the suc- 
ceeding day, all the tongues that stand in need 
of exercise. We spoke firstly of Geymnller's 
bankruptcy, a subject which kept all the talkers 
in Vienna in full play for two months, and was- 
introduced every morning as regularly as family 
prayers. It was maintained that it was the 
banker Sina, who had ruined Geymilller. The 
bookkeeper of the latter had betrayed the embar- 
rassments of his principal to Sina, who there- 
upon, to secure his own claims, had come for- 
ward, and anticipated the other creditors. The 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



101 



clerks of Geymtiller had called the treacherous 
bookkeeper to account for this, and even threat- 
ened his life. But Geymtlller had said, "Let 
him liv^el for this man whom I have raised from 
nothing;, and who has in return betrayed me, 
God will jud.^e him!" Next, the last ^reat fire 
was discussed, and some one related how the 
night before, a young man had been robbed and 
murdered in Leopolstadt. 

" Ah, see there now! they are going on quite 
in the Galicia fashion in Vienna!" said the slim, 
pale young woman whom I had taken for a 
modiste, but who afterwards gave us to under- 
stand she was the lady of a government tobacco 
agent. "Two fires in .one week, a man mur- 
dered, Geymiiller a bankrupt, it's regular Galicia 
fashion, upon my honour!" — " Were you ever in 
Galicia, if I may ask?" saidL — " Ah! yes, indeed, 
God help me, two whole years," was the answer, 
accompanied b}' a deep sigli. 

Thereupon our conversation took another 
direction, for I too had been in Galicia, and was 
interested for the country, and for the views 
others entertained respecting it. It may be 
easily imagined how longingly all eyes are 
directed from the provinces towards the warm 
high-beating heart of the Austrian monarchy; 
the far radiating centre of light, the seat of all 
that is noblest, fairest, and wisest, the imperial 
city of Vienna, and how its splendours and glo- 
ries are magnified in the imaginati^ins of those | 
dwellers in the provinces, whose fortune it is 
never to see it face to face; and on the other | 
hand, it is as easy to fancy how inconsolable 
must be the man or woinan destined to leave 
this temple of renown and source of all plea- 
sure, for the comparatively joyless provinces. 
I never heard a Vienna lady more eloquent than 
when speaking of the Bohemians, Moravians, or 
even the Poles, Hungarians, Croats, and other 
remote people of the empire. As the wives of 
officers, military or civil, many a fair Austrian 
is fated to wander among these barbarians. 
Whoever has had occasion to listen to the ccmi- 
plaints of those who have been stationed in 
Bukowina, Transylvania, or the military colo- 
nics, must confess that the Jeremiade of the 
Chinese princess married to a Mongolian prince, 
as delivered to us by Ruckert, in his Schi-king, 
was not more deeply felt nor more poetically ex- 
pressed, nor is the joy of the princess when she 
returns to the capital of the Sun's brother, 
greater than the rapture of a fair native of 
Vienna, when she sees Stephen's tower again 
alter a residence of some years in Hungary or 
Galicia. If any one be carious to know the 
kind of picture she woukl draw of the place she 
had left, let him listen to the account of the 
tobacconist's better half, when the before-men- 
tioned misfortunes and misdeeds awakened her 
recollections of Galicia. 

" Yes, it is quite the Galicia mode, and we 
shall soon have in Vienna such spectacles as 
are to bs seen in Lemberg everjj day. Whilst 
I was there, they hung nine men within six 
weeks. Once they hung up four on the same 
day. They were 'jnng alternately, first a Chris- 
tian and then a Jew, and then another Christian 
and then another Jew. Here, God be thanked, 
the punishment of death is pretty well laid aside, 
except among the military. But Galicia! Oh 



what a country! I had travelled before in Bo- 
hemia and Moravia,; I thought the poverty and 
misery of the people was scandalous enough 
there, and far beyond what I had any idea off 
but, Jesus Maria! I've learned more since; 
when I .got to Galicia, I found what it was to' 
be in a country so far behind in civilization ! 
Such rogues and vagabonds as the people are 
there I never heard of! They plunder and pil- 
fer, and commit all manner of excesses. At 
first we used to go by the diligence on the great 
high-roads, but afterwariis we had a carriage to 
ourselves. Oji the high-roads you must have 
recourse to blows to get any thing, but out of 
thern there is nothing to be had either for cud- 
gelling or for money. One evening the Jew 
who was driving us, called out — 'Look at the 
stars, do you see the stars? the sabbath is be- 
ginning!' and he actually wanted to take out his 
horses and compel us to pass the night in the 
open air! My uncle, who was travelling with 
me, gave him a beating and he drove a little 
larther; but my uncle was obliged to cudgel 
him six times before we got to our journey's 
end." Here 1 looked hard at the speaker, who 
had not asked me whether I had ever been in 
Lemberg, M'ith a scrutinizing glance, but I saw 
that she was quite in earnest, meant bona Jide 
what she said, and reckoned fully on our belief 
in her relation. "Lemberg," she continued, 
"they call their capital; but what a capital! 
Heaven help us! Here in Vienna if you have a 
florin in your hand you can do something with 
it, can have some diversion, can satisfy your 
hunger. But there, if you have two you can 
get nothing for them — nothing whatever; the 
cofiTee-houses are bad and filthy. A cup of 
coffee costs twenty-four kreuzers, and then it is 
good for nothing. A person in a public ofiice, 
with a salary of 900 florins, cannot even say he 
has his own living out of it, not to speak of 
bread for his children. My uncle went from one 
coffee-house to another for two months together, 
when we were first there, before he could make 
up a rubber of whist." 

Just then we reached Nussdorf, where a num- 
ber of hackney-coaches were in waiting for the 
passengers by the Linz steamboats. 

"There! In all Leuiberg, a city M'ith 80,000 in- 
habitants, if the people can be called inhabitants, 
there are not as many hackne)'-coaches as you 
see here in one place. I assure you there are not 
more than a dozen in the whole town. I lived 
with my uncle, and when the winter came we 
went to the assembly. My uncle had dressed 
himself of course, and so had I; I was quite 
bare, my neck I mean, and of course I had my 
hair properly dressed, as we should here in Vi- 
enna to go to an assembly. We drove there at 
half-past ten, that was soon enough, for who 
thinks of going to an assembly in Vienna before 
eleven o'clock? and all the company was assem- 
bled, and as long as I live I shall never forget it, 
all in their furs, some even in sheepskins, and 
boots and spurs, just as they go in the streets. 
As I and my uncle were taking our places, the 
people called to each o\\\e v'Schaufs die Schwab' n! 
Schaiii's die Schwah'n.'' ( Look at the Swabians!) 
My uncle, who understood Polish, translated to 
me all they said of us, the bandy-legged fel- 
lows! Jews and gipsies are there in abundance 



102 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



— gipsies (oh, it is scandalous) in -whole gangs. 
They liv^' in a state of misery that is not to be 
described, even when snnietiiing is done to bet- 
t# their condition. Bnt in that country each 
throws the blame upon the other. The noble- 
man says the peasant is lazy, and the pcjsant 
says the nobleman has nothing for him but a 
whip. And then sometimes the Jew's turn 
cnines. The Jews, ah, I assure you this peo- 
ple — " Here the Austrian eloquence of our talk- 
ative companion, whose innate antipathy to 
Hungarians andGalicians, excited by applause, 
ran t)n in a stream as fluent as molten wax, was 
interrupted by another description of oratory, 
that of the waiter of the Kloslerneuburg inn, as 
he opened the door of the coach, and invited us 
to get out. We did so, and hastened to the con- 
vent. 

The tradition respecting the foundation of this 
convent that it was endowed by Leopold the 
Holy, in commemoration of his having here 
found the lost veil of his consort the beautiful 
Margravine Agnes on an ekler-bush, was re- 
peated to us, as it is to all the thousands of tra- 
vellers who yearly knock for admission at its 
gates. In the treasury of relics we were also 
shown a piece of the elder-bush, a rag of the 
veil, and a fragment of the skull, under whose 
protecting roof the thought of such a foundation 
■was first hatched. The legends of the Catholic 
churcli are really- sometimes inconceivably pal- 
try. What a fuss they have made of that 
princely veil, whose loss was at once so very 
simple and so very insignificant? In a picture 
they have even represented a troop of baby an- 
gels busied in restoring the veil to the Mar- 
gravine. And to found a convent on such an 
incident! The thing would be absurd, even if 
the veils of our Christian ladies had the mystic 
significance of the Mahometan veils, the loss of 
which might be supposed to include the loss of 
half their womanhood. 

Put out of humour by these reflections in the 
relic-room, we requested to be shown the splen- 
did library, that we might have something rea- 
sonable to look at; but the first book that fell 
into our hands was Chronica Austrine by Johann 
Rasch, and the first remark that struck us on 
o-pening it was, that Noah must have been arch- 
duke of Austria, because when the waters of the 
deluge had subsided, and he as sole lord and 
ruler of the earth had taken possession, Austria 
must have been included. On a closer exami- 
nation of this remarkable book, I fonnd among 
other ante and post diluvian occurrences, not 
mentioned in any other history, a complete hst 
of Austrian rulers in direct descent from Noah. 

No less than forty princes (heathens) were 
enumerated, then several Jewish. Then the 
chronicler observes, "Heathen princes again 
ruled in Austria, and certainly not fewer than 
s^ven." To these succeeded the Christian i-u- 
lers Rolantin, Raptan, Amanus, &c., a hundred 
princes in all, whom the crazy chronicler had 
invested wdth princely honours, down to the 
Babenbergers, eleven in number, and the Haps- 
burgers, fifteen. 

The author of this book, a remarkable one in 
a psychological, if not in an historical point of 
view, Avas a teacher in the Scotch convent in 
Vienna, and the most curious part of the story 



is, that no joke is intended, but all is seriously 
meant. It is diligently compiled, and printed in 
the old, firm, careful, conscientious type of the 
last century. The exact date of every occur- 
rence is carefully given: how long after the 
creation of the world, how long after the deluge^ 
and how long before the birth of Christ. For 
example: 

"In the j-ear 1807, after the creation of the 
Avorld in the 151 st year after the deluge, and the 
2l5Gth before the birthof Christ, Tuisco brought 
a great people with him from Armenia, Ger- 
mans and Wendes, among whom were twenty- 
five counts, and about thirty princes." 

All the various readings of the princes' names, 
their sundry aliases, are also carefully noted. 
" In the year 2.390, after the creation of the world, 
7.34 after the deluge, lived the German Her- 
cules, Hercules Alemannicus, also Hercule, 
Aergle, Argle, Excle or Arglon, the 'Hero with 
the fierce lion,' which he leads in a chain, and 
bears as a cognizance in his shield." 

The whole is illustrated with pictures, and the 
coat of arms of every prince is given. Abra- 
ham's is a golden eagle in a black shield, placed 
obliquely. 

Many historiographers have laboured for the 
glorification of the old house of Austria, but none 
have gone about their work in a way to be at 
all compared to Johann Rasch's. Can it be that 
in his time (-he lived at the beginning of the 
17th century) people were so far beclouded in 
the fogs of vanity and self-esteem, as to give 
currency to his book"? 

A further search in the magnificent rooms 
appropriated to the library of this convent 
shoAved that some really interesting books were 
to be found in it: Haufstangel's lithographs from 
the Dresden gallery. Salt's View of India; De- 
non's work on Egypt, and other splendid works 
of that description. 

Tiie Incunabulte and manuscripts have all 
been lately bound in Russia leather, which is 
said to preserv^e them from the worms. There 
are some old missals and breviaries, and a 
costly edition of Pliny, on such indestructible 
paper, with so tasteful yet so clear a tj^pe, and 
with so solid a binding as in our times are no 
longer to be seen. The Incunabula; must be 
very old, for the numbers of the paper, and the 
superscriptions are made Avith the pen. The old 
heathen sage Pliny was painted in gay colours 
in front of his work, Avith a glory like that of a 
saint round his head, Avriting his EA^angelium, 
like St. John; proof enough hoAv highly, even in 
the middle ages, the monks valued the classic 
works of the ancients. 

There are also a great number of old German 
poems and legends. I took out one and found 
it gnawed by the mice. "Eh, eh," said the fa- 
ther, Avho was showing me around, "some 
Avicked animal has been at our books again! 
It's very illegibly Avritten. I can't read these 
old letters, andj dont't care to read thrj^., I like 
to read a plain good print!" Then stepping to 
the Avindow, he hummed a melody Avhich some 
organ-grinder wras pla3'ing i \ the street below, 
and obserA^ed, "That is a pretty song. It is from 
the Puritani." I rummaged further in the 
mouse magazine, and found another old dusty 
book. It was called " On the German War of 



KOHL'S AUSTRIA. 



Hortleder;" thus in Austria is entitled the war 
of Charles V. against the protestants. We may 
acquire ar very sufficient notion of the contents 
of this book by only reading the title. It is alike 
characteristic of the manner of carrying on the 
war, as of the spirit of the times which dictated 
both the Avar and the book. It runs thus: " Of 
the German War of Hortleder, Avith the dis- 
patches, intelligence, instructions, complaints, 
supplications, written commands, summonses, 
counsels, deliberations, justifications, protesta- 
tions, and recusations, replies, details, alliances 
and counter alliances, orders and testimonials, 
letters ofconsent and dissent, challenges, admo- 
nitions, truces, battles, fights and skirmishes, 
with one word the causes of the German War." 
The mere reading of this title makes one feel 
quite Holy Koman and German empire-ish. 

Klosterneuburg, as it now stands, is one of 
those stately giant erections, reared at the com- 
mand of the greatest architect Austria ever saw 
on the throne — Charles VI. It is projected in 
the same grand style as all other architectural 
works of that monarch, and like many others 
also unfortunately (or fortunately^) not com- 
pleted. Want of "money, the sudden death of 
Charles, and the wars in the succeeding reign 
of Maria Theresa, prevented the completion, 
which was subsequently often attempted, but 
never achieved, as money no longer liowed so 
freely as under the administration of the former 
monarch. Much has been done, however, of 
late; the library is new, a magnificent staircase 
has been built at the cost of many thousand 
florins, the great marble hall is finished. The 
giant hall which has long remained as the work- 
men left it a hundred years ago, it is hoped, will 
be cleared as soon as the new church, which 
tlie convent is bound to erect in one of its pa- 
risljes in the suburb of Hitzing, shall be com- 
pleted. The cost has been estimated at 100,000 
florins, but it will not be less than 150,000. The 
convent has the patronage of not less than 
twenty-five churches. 

Klosterneuburg is particularly rich in vine- 
yards, and their produce flows from the tuns of 
all the houses of public entertainment far and 
near. Hence it has acquired among the people 
the nickname of the "running tap" {zum rin- 
nenden zapfen), just as Gottweih, on account of 
its abundance of ready money is called " the 
jingling penny" {zum Idingenden pfennig); and 
even as the fathers of Molk are called the "lords 
of the jolly pecks" (c?/e Herren vom reissenden 
Metzen), dn account of the many fertile corn- 
fields they possess. 

The Emperor Charles VI. wished to make 
Klosterneuburg his usual summer residence, 
and built the convent for a chateau. JVear the 
cells of the monks there is a range of magnifi- 
cent apartments called the emperor's apart- 
ments, which are of no manner of use to them, 
but on the contrary, a great burden. The chief 
cupola of the building is surmoffnted with an 
imperial crown, and the lesser ones with the 
archducal hat. The imperial crown and the 
gigantic cushion on which it rests, is an exact 
copy in iron of the real crown at Vienna. 
Within, it is roomy enough to contain twenty 
men, and beams are stretched across to give it 
greater firmness. The precious stones are great 



bosses of iron-plate, painted blue and red, in 
which there are small windows or doors whence 
a wide prospect may be enjoyed. 

The Archducal hat on each'of the other cupo- 
las has here more significance than the crown, 
for Klosterneuburg is the principal convent of 
the archduchy, and is the guardian of the veri- 
table hat itself, or rather, calls it its own. The 
monks maintain that the hat belongs, not to the 
imperial house, but to the convent, and when 
homage is to be rendered to the emperor as 
archduke, he must borrow the hat of them. The 
Archduke Maximilian dedicated this hat "ex 
devotione" to St. Leopold, the patron and immor- 
tal proprietor of the monastery. On the occasion 
of receiving homage, the loan of the hat to the 
new emperor, or archduke, is attended by a 
number of antique ceremonies. 

Two imperial commissioners, generally no- 
blemen of some old Austrian race, such as the 
Hardegg, Schonborns, &c., come on the ap- 
pointed day, escorted by a detachment of ca- 
valry in a state equipage draw^n by six horses, 
and are received before the gates of the convent 
by the whole chapter with the " reigning pre- 
late" at their head. In the courts of the convent, 
the " Biirgerschafr of the town of Klosterneu- 
burg parade in uniform and armed. After a 
friendly welcome, the illustrious guests, attend- 
ed by the whole company, go to St. Leopold's 
chapel, where they hear the service and sing a 
Te Deum, after which the " reigning bishop," in 
full pontificalibus and grasping the golden cro- 
sier adorned with precious stones, admired by 
travellers in the treasury of the convent, repairs 
to the thipne-room Avhere he gives audience to 
the imperial commissioners and demands their 
business. The commissioners in the old style 
make a speech to the " well beloved, pious and 
faithful," and declare therein that a new lord 
and ruler is minded to invest himself with the 
emblems and glories of majesty, wherefore he 
requests the convent will lend him the old hat 
Then the bishop rises and gravely declares that 
he sees no reason to the contrary; whereupon 
the chapter willingly and submissively grant 
the request of the illustrious supplicant. 

Here ends the first act of this important 
drama, and to gather strength and courage for 
the second, the party adjourn to the banquet- 
table, where the " Eunning Tap" shoM's itself 
no niggard, and many a glass is emptied to the 
prosperity of the old house of Austria. 

After the banquet, the parties proceed to the 
delivery and reception of the hat; but in the 
first place, its genuineness and identity in ever)- 
respect must be ascertained. The imperial com- 
missioners draw out an old paper on which it is 
described in detail. The great blue sapphire on 
the top, in the centre tne pearls, rubies, and 
emeralds, the sable tails, every thing is closely 
examined and certified, and then the hat is 
packed into its red leathern case, locked up, and 
carried down to the gale by the dean, assisted 
by two priests. 

Here the case is delivered to the commis- 
sioners, who place it in a litter borne by two 
mules. The litter is followed by twefve of the 
Austrian " noble guard," all scions of ancient 
race; then come the commissioners in their 
carriage, then the empty carriage of the bishop, 



104 



KOHL'S AUSTRL\. 



and behind it a part of his flock, the bflrger 
guard of Klosterneuburg on horseback wiih 
their trumpets. The latter, and the empty car- 
riage, only go as far as the Scottish gate of 
Vienna, where the national guard is stationed to 
relieve them and convey the hat to its destina- 
tion. The return of the hat to the convent is 
conducted in similar style, but with somewhat 
less ceremony. 

The archduke St. Leopold is the patron and 
protector of the Austrian archduchies, but Ne- 
pomucene and Florian are also supposed to 
watch over their safety. Leopold is buried 
here; the enamel-work on his monument is ad- 
mired by all travellers, as in durs* bound, al- 
though the place is so dark that scarcely any 
thing can be seen of it But the beautiful 
stucco-work of the church really deserves the 
highest admiration, and I do not think that any 
thing so perfect is to be met with elsewhere in 
German V. Such luxurious fulness of form, such 
correctness of drawing, such a solidity of work- 
manship, which, after the lapse of a hundred 
years, holds and looks as if it had been done 
yesterday, and such taste in the division and 
arrangement of the groups, made it really 



imique in its kind, and do the highest honour 
to the Augustine chapter of Klosterneuburg, if 
they had really a hand in the matter I must 
confess that after I had seen all llae splendours 
of this convent I felt as if I had enjoyed a ban- 
quet. Two gentlemen who were my fellow- 
passengers in the Stellwagen en my remm, 
owned to similar feelings, only there was this 
difference between us, they had really dined. 
They had dined with the prelate and were full 
of his praises. On the way they pointed out to 
me a monument raised by a former prelate in 
commemoration of a great danger from which 
he had escaped. He was driving past the spot, 
when an explosion in a neighbouring Turkish 
redoubt, hurled some thousands of cannon-beills 
into the air. One of these balls passed ob- 
liquely through the roof of the bishop's car- 
riage without doing him any personal injury, 
and, in memory of this preservation, he had 
had this ball riveted on the pointed summit of 
a column, with an inscription explaining the 
motive for the erection of so singular a monu- 
ment, which seemed to me to announce more 
plainly than any thing else I had seen, the pro- 
digious importance of a Klosterneuburg prelate. 



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RUSSIA AND THE RUSSIANS, 
BY J. G. KOHL. 

"This book gives the clearest insight into Russian habits, manners, and general statistics, of any worl 
on the subject which we have hitherto consulted. Though sometimes minute, M. Kohl is never tedious 
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and Jan Steen, Mr. Kohl's work is nothing less than the daguerreotype itself^ IIo lias given us St. Pete; 
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each swarming with its respective population, not slifily drawn as if silting jor their picture, but caught ii 
full life and movement, song, laugh and talk hit off in every shade and grade of mind, habit, speech u 
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to surpass," — Londvn Quarterly Review. 



r^lRT 3. 

A U S T R I A. 

By J. G. KOIIL. 



r.lRTS 5, 6, -y atul S. 

SCHLOSSER'S HISTORY 

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

Translated by DAVID DAVISON, M.A. 

UNDER TIIK IMMEDIATE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE AL'THOU. 






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